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Experimental Individuation and Retail Arguments

Chen, Ruey-Lin and Hricko, Jonathon (2016) Experimental Individuation and Retail Arguments. In: UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

Magnus and Callender (2004) argue that we ought to focus on retail arguments, which are arguments regarding the existence of particular kinds of theoretical entities, as opposed to theoretical entities in general. However, scientists are the ones who put forward retail arguments, and it’s unclear how philosophers can engage with such arguments. We argue that philosophers can engage with retail arguments by providing criteria that they must satisfy in order to demonstrate the existence of theoretical entities. We put forward experimental individuation as such a criterion---when scientists experimentally individuate an entity, a realist conclusion about that entity is warranted.


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Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Chen, Ruey-Lin
Hricko, Jonathonjonathon.hricko@gmail.com
Keywords: Scientific Realism, Individuation, Theoretical Entities, Experimentation
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Chemistry
General Issues > Experimentation
General Issues > History of Science Case Studies
Specific Sciences > Physics
General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
General Issues > Theory Change
Depositing User: Jonathon Hricko
Date Deposited: 24 Jul 2016 16:01
Last Modified: 24 Jul 2016 16:01
Item ID: 12301
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Chemistry
General Issues > Experimentation
General Issues > History of Science Case Studies
Specific Sciences > Physics
General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
General Issues > Theory Change
Date: 24 July 2016
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/12301

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