Saatsi, Juha and Vickers, Peter (2010) Miraculous Success? Inconsistency and Untruth in Kirchhoff’s Diffraction Theory. [Preprint]
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Abstract
Kirchhoff’s diffraction theory is introduced as a new case study in the realism debate. The theory is extremely successful despite being both inconsistent and not even approximately true. Some habitual realist proclamations simply cannot be maintained in the face of Kirchhoff’s theory, as the realist is forced to acknowledge that theoretical success can in some circumstances be explained in terms other than truth. The idiosyncrasy (or otherwise) of Kirchhoff’s case is considered.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | |||||||||
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| Additional Information: | Paper forthcoming (2010) in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science | |||||||||
| Keywords: | Kirchhoff, Scientific Realism, Predictive Success, No Miracles, Pessimistic Induction, Inconsistency | |||||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism |
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| Depositing User: | Dr Peter Vickers | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 01 Apr 2010 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 07 Oct 2010 15:19 | |||||||||
| Item ID: | 5240 | |||||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism |
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| Date: | June 2010 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/5240 |
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