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Structural Realism: Continuity and its Limits

Votsis, Ioannis (2009) Structural Realism: Continuity and its Limits. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Structural realists of nearly all stripes endorse the structural continuity claim. Roughly speaking, this is the claim that the structure of successful scientific theories survives theory change because it has latched on to the structure of the world. In this paper I elaborate, elucidate and modify the structural continuity claim and its associated argument. I do so without presupposing a particular conception of structure that favours this or that kind of structural realism. Instead I focus on how structural realists can best account for the neutrally formulated historical facts. The result, I hope, crystallises some of the shared commitments, desiderata and limits of structural realists.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Votsis, Ioannis
Keywords: structural realism, history of science, correspondence principle, Kuhn loss.
Subjects: General Issues > Theory Change
General Issues > Theory/Observation
Specific Sciences > Physics
General Issues > History of Science Case Studies
General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
Depositing User: Dr Ioannis Votsis
Date Deposited: 30 Mar 2010
Last Modified: 07 Oct 2010 15:19
Item ID: 5233
Subjects: General Issues > Theory Change
General Issues > Theory/Observation
Specific Sciences > Physics
General Issues > History of Science Case Studies
General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
Date: January 2009
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/5233

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