Formulational vs. Epistemological Debates Concerning Scientific Realism

Dialogue 59 (3):479-496 (2020)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

A formulational debate is a debate over whether certain definitions of scientific realism and antirealism are useful or useless. By contrast, an epistemological debate is a debate over whether we have sufficient evidence for scientific realism and antirealism defined in a certain manner. I argue that Hilary Putnam’s definitions of scientific realism and antirealism are more useful than Bas van Fraassen’s definitions of scientific realism and constructive empiricism because Putnam’s definitions can generate both formulational and epistemological debates, whereas van Fraassen’s can generate only formulational debates.

Other Versions

No versions found

Similar books and articles

Wilfrid Sellars and Constructive Empiricism.John Dougherty - 2024 - Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 14 (2):435-478.
Kuhn and the Contemporary Realism/Antirealism Debates.K. Brad Wray - 2021 - Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 11 (1):72-92.
Scientific realism, scientific practice, and the natural ontological attitude.André Kukla - 1994 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 45 (4):955-975.
How to Formulate Scientific Realism and Antirealism.Seungbae Park - 2019 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 50 (4):477–488.
Resisting Scientific Realism by K. Brad Wray. [REVIEW]Samuel Ruhmkorff - 2019 - British Journal for Philosophy of Science Review of Books 1.

Analytics

Added to PP
2020-01-21

Downloads
550 (#41,065)

6 months
224 (#13,964)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Seungbae Park
Ulsan National Institute Of Science And Technology

Citations of this work

Replies to Healey’s Comments Regarding van Fraassen’s Positions.Seungbae Park - 2020 - Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 9 (1):38-47.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Laws and symmetry.Bas C. Van Fraassen - 1989 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The Scientific Image.William Demopoulos & Bas C. van Fraassen - 1982 - Philosophical Review 91 (4):603.
A Treatise of Human Nature.David Hume & A. D. Lindsay - 1958 - Philosophical Quarterly 8 (33):379-380.
A confutation of convergent realism.Larry Laudan - 1981 - Philosophy of Science 48 (1):19-49.
The Indispensability of Mathematics.Mark Colyvan - 2001 - Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

View all 37 references / Add more references