Explanatory Failures of Relative Realism

Epistemologia 38 (1):16-28 (2015)
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Abstract

Scientific realism (Putnam 1975; Psillos 1999) and relative realism (Mizrahi 2013) claim that successful scientific theories are approximately true and comparatively true, respectively. A theory is approximately true if and only if it is close to the truth. A theory is comparatively true if and only if it is closer to the truth than its competitors are. I argue that relative realism is more skeptical about the claims of science than it initially appears to be and that it can explain neither the success nor the failure of science. Hence, it is not a promising competitor to scientific realism.

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10.3280/epis2015-001002

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Seungbae Park
Ulsan National Institute Of Science And Technology

Citations of this work

Critiques of Minimal Realism.Seungbae Park - 2017 - Problemos 92:102-114.
Editorial.[author unknown] - 2017 - Editorial 9 (44):1-4.

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References found in this work

The scientific image.C. Van Fraassen Bas - 1980 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The Scientific Image.William Demopoulos & Bas C. van Fraassen - 1982 - Philosophical Review 91 (4):603.
Explaining the Success of a Scientific Theory.Timothy D. Lyons - 2003 - Philosophy of Science 70 (5):891-901.
Realism Versus Surrealism.Seungbae Park - 2016 - Foundations of Science 21 (4):603-614.
The Argument from Underconsideration and Relative Realism.Moti Mizrahi - 2013 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 27 (4):393-407.

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