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Realism about Structure: The Semantic View and Non-linguistic Representations

French, Steven and Saatsi, Juha (2004) Realism about Structure: The Semantic View and Non-linguistic Representations. In: UNSPECIFIED. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The central concern of this paper is whether the Semantic Approach to theories has the resources to appropriately capture the core tenets of structural realism. Chakravartty, for example, has argued that a realist notion of correspondence cannot be accommodated without introducing a linguistic component which undermines the Approach itself. We suggest first of all, that this worry can be addressed by an appropriate understanding of the role of language with respect to the Semantic Approach. Secondly, we argue that an appropriately structuralist account of representation can serve the structural realist’s needs. However, the real challenge, we feel, is whether a core notion of ‘explanatory approximate truth’ can be incorporated into this account and in such a way that the emphasis on structure is retained. The extent to which this challenge can be met is something on which even the authors are divided!


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Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
French, Steven
Saatsi, Juha
Keywords: Realism; structure; representation; Newman
Subjects: General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
Depositing User: Professor Steven French
Date Deposited: 31 Oct 2004
Last Modified: 07 Oct 2010 15:12
Item ID: 2037
Public Domain: No
Conference Date: Nov. 2004
Conference Location: Austin TX
Subjects: General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
Date: 2004
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/2037

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