Synthese 198 (7):6859-6887 (2021)
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Abstract |
Science is replete with falsehoods that epistemically facilitate understanding by virtue of being the very falsehoods they are. In view of this puzzling fact, some have relaxed the truth requirement on understanding. I offer a factive view of understanding that fully accommodates the puzzling fact in four steps: (i) I argue that the question how these falsehoods are related to the phenomenon to be understood and the question how they figure into the content of understanding it are independent. (ii) I argue that the falsehoods do not figure into the understanding’s content by being elements of its periphery or core. (iii) Drawing lessons from case studies, I argue that the falsehoods merely enable understanding. When working with such falsehoods, only the truths we extract from them are elements of the content of our understanding. (iv) I argue that the extraction view is compatible with the thesis that falsehoods can have an epistemic value by virtue of being the very falsehoods they are.
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Keywords | Understanding Factivism Non-factivism Quasi-factivism Felicitous falsehoods Idealization Models |
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Reprint years | 2019, 2021 |
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DOI | 10.1007/s11229-019-02495-0 |
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References found in this work BETA
Idealization and the Aims of Science.Angela Potochnik - 2017 - Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
The Value of Knowledge and the Pursuit of Understanding.Jonathan L. Kvanvig - 2003 - Cambridge University Press.
View all 74 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Rational Understanding: Toward a Probabilistic Epistemology of Acceptability.Finnur Dellsén - 2019 - Synthese 198 (3):2475-2494.
Model Explanation Versus Model-Induced Explanation.Insa Lawler & Emily Sullivan - 2021 - Foundations of Science 26 (4):1049-1074.
Truth and Reality: How to Be a Scientific Realist Without Believing Scientific Theories Should Be True.Angela Potochnik - forthcoming - In Kareem Khalifa, Insa Lawler & Elay Shech (eds.), Scientific Understanding and Representation: Modeling in the Physical Sciences.
View all 14 citations / Add more citations
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