HPS100H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Instrumentalism, Begging The Question, Scientific Realism
13 Sep 2016
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Scientific realism: the history of science knows many episodes when a theory that had been accepted for centuries was eventually rejected and replaced by a new theory. Things as they exist independently of the human kind (ie things in themselves) Things as they appear to the human mind in experiments and observations. Our best scientific theories correctly describe the nature of the mind- independent world. Thus, we can both use theories in practical applications and accept them as best available descriptions of the external world. Nowadays, scientific realism comes in 2 basic flavors (both of them: face problems: structural realism. Although our theories about the natures of u(cid:374)o(cid:271)ser(cid:448)a(cid:271)le e(cid:374)tities (cid:894)ie. ele(cid:272)tro(cid:374)s, (cid:374)eutro(cid:374)s (cid:895) can be false, our knowledge of the relations between them is true. Although, in the future, our theories may be rejected, most of the equations will survive in one way or another.
