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Should a Historically Motivated Anti-Realist be a Stanfordite?

Frost-Arnold, Greg (2015) Should a Historically Motivated Anti-Realist be a Stanfordite? [Preprint]

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Abstract

Suppose one believes that the historical record of science provides good evidence against scientific realism. Should one adopt Kyle Stanford’s specific version of this view, based on the Problem of Unconceived Alternatives (PUA)? I present reasons for answering this question in the negative. In particular, Stanford’s challenge cannot use many of the prima facie strongest pieces of historical evidence against realism, namely: (i) superseded theories whose successors were explicitly conceived, and (ii) superseded theories that were not the result of elimination-of-alternatives inferences. Attempts to accommodate (i) and (ii) within Stanford’s framework are incompatible with other commitments Stanford holds, such as anti-realism being piecemeal instead of global. As separate lines of criticism, I argue that there are problems with both Stanford’s claim that the PUA is the most important challenge to realism, and with his view of instrumentalist theory endorsement.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Frost-Arnold, Greggfrost-arnold@hws.edu
Additional Information: Forthcoming in Synthese.
Keywords: realism, anti-realism, pessimistic induction, problem of unconceived alternatives
Subjects: General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
Depositing User: Greg Frost-Arnold
Date Deposited: 25 Dec 2015 14:21
Last Modified: 25 Dec 2015 14:21
Item ID: 11826
Subjects: General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
Date: 30 October 2015
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/11826

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