Ground truth and virtual reality: Hacking vs. Van Fraassen

Philosophy of Science 62 (3):459-478 (1995)
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Abstract

Hacking argues against van Fraassen's constructive empiricism by appeal to features of microscopic imaging. Hacking relies on both our practices involving imaging instruments and the structure of the images produced by these micropractices. Van Fraassen's reply is formally correct yet fundamentally unsatisfying. I aim to strengthen van Fraassen's reply, but must then extend constructive empiricism, specifically the central notion of "theoretical immersion." I argue that immersion is more analogous to entering a virtual reality than to learning a language. This metaphor assimilates instrument-based practice as well as theoretical debate and explanation, and can provide an anti-realist view of our micro-practices consonant with constructive empiricism

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William Seager
University of Toronto at Scarborough

Citations of this work

Gravitational lensing and Hacking's extragalactic irreality.Jutta Rockmann - 1998 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 12 (2):151 – 164.
Kusch and van Fraassen on microscopic experience.Alessio Gava - 2019 - Revista Latinoamericana de Filosofia 45 (1):7-31.

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References found in this work

Do We See Through a Microscope?Ian Hacking - 1981 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 62 (4):305-322.
Scientific Anti-Realism and the Epistemic Community.William Seager - 1988 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1988:181-187.
Credibility, confirmation and explanation.William Seager - 1987 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 38 (3):301-317.

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