The Relevance of Evidence from the History of Science in the Contemporary Realism/Anti-realism Debate

Authors

  • K. Brad Wray State University of New York, Oswego

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4245/sponge.v9i1.26986

Abstract

It is widely assumed that it is the anti-realist who stakes his case on evidence from the history of science. I argue that (i) realists have failed to recognize the need to collect evidence from the history of science to support their methodological claims, and (ii) anti-realists do not rely on evidence from the history of science to the extent that many suggest.

Author Biography

K. Brad Wray, State University of New York, Oswego

K. Brad Wray is a Professor of Philosophy at the State University of New York, Oswego. His book *Kuhn's Evolutionary Social Epistemology* was published by Cambridge University Press in 2011. His research addresses questions in social epistemology and the realism/anti-realism debate.

References

Hardin, C. L., and A. Rosenberg. 1982. “In Defense of Convergent Realism,” Philosophy of Science, 49: 604-615.

Lange, M. 2002. “Baseball, Pessimistic Inductions, and the Turnover Fallacy,” Analysis, 62: 4, 281-285.

Laudan, L. 1981. “A Confutation of Convergent Realism,” Philosophy of Science, 48: 19-49.

Lewis, P. 2001. “Why the Pessimistic Induction is a Fallacy,” Synthese, 129: 3, 371-380.

Magnus, P. D., and C. Callender. 2004. “Realist Ennui and the Base Rate Fallacy,” Philosophy of Science, 71: 3, 320-338.

McMullin, E. 1993. “Rationality and Paradigm Change in Science,” in P. Horwich, (ed.), World Changes: Thomas Kuhn and the Nature of Science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pages 55-78.

Psillos, S. 1996. “Scientific Realism and the ‘Pessimistic Induction,’” Philosophy of Science, 63 (Proceedings), S306-S314.

Putnam, H. 1975. Mathematics, Matter and Method: Philosophical Papers, Volume 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wray, K. B. 2015. “Pessimistic Inductions: Four Varieties,” International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 29: 1, 61-73.

Downloads

Published

2018-02-15

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2018): The Future of the Scientific Realism Debate: Contemporary Issues Concerning Scientific Realism

Section

Focused Discussion

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms: (a) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. (b) Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. (c) Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.