Chen, Ruey-Lin and Hricko, Jonathon (2019) Experimental Individuation and Philosophical Retail Arguments. [Preprint]
This is the latest version of this item.
|
Text
Chen+Hricko2019ExpInd+RetArg.pdf Download (242kB) | Preview |
Abstract
This paper aims to defend the use of the notion of experimental individuation, which has recently been developed by Ruey-Lin Chen, as a criterion for the reality of theoretical entities. In short, when scientists experimentally individuate an entity, a realist conclusion about that entity is warranted. We embed this claim regarding experimental individuation within a framework that allows for other criteria of reality. And we understand so-called retail arguments regarding the reality of a particular theoretical entity as arguments that concern choosing an appropriate criterion of reality for that entity and determining whether the relevant first-order scientific evidence satisfies that criterion. We argue that such retail arguments are philosophical because defending criteria of reality, and showing that they are or are not satisfied in particular cases, involves work that is distinctively philosophical. And we illustrate this philosophical work by applying our criterion of experimental individuation to three historical cases: Davy’s potassium, Lavoisier’s muriatic radical, and Thomson’s electrified particles.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
| Item Type: | Preprint | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators: |
|
|||||||||
| Keywords: | individuation, scientific realism, retail arguments, 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: | 11 Apr 2019 13:03 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 11 Apr 2019 13:03 | |||||||||
| Item ID: | 15898 | |||||||||
| 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: | 2019 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/15898 |
Available Versions of this Item
-
Experimental Individuation and Retail Arguments. (deposited 24 Jul 2016 16:01)
- Experimental Individuation and Philosophical Retail Arguments. (deposited 11 Apr 2019 13:03) [Currently Displayed]
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}