DOCSLIB.ORG

Definition and Construction Preprint 28.09

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Definition and Construction Preprint 28.09 MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science 2006 PREPRINT 317 Gideon Freudenthal Definition and Construction Salomon Maimon’s Philosophy of Geometry Definition and Construction Salomon Maimon's Philosophy of Geometry Gideon Freudenthal 1. Introduction .........................................................................................................3 1.1. A Failed Proof and a Philosophical Conversion .................................................8 1.2. The Value of Mathematics ..................................................................................13 2. The Straight Line.................................................................................................15 2.1. Synthetic Judgments a priori Kantian and Aristotelean Style.............................15 2.2. Maimon's Proof that the Straight Line is also the shortest between Two Points ............................................................................................23 2.3. Kant's Critique and Maimon's Answer................................................................30 2.4. Definition, Construction, Proof in Euclid and Kant............................................33 2.5. The Construction of the Straight Line.................................................................37 2.6. The Turn to Empircial Skepticism (and Rational Dogmatism)...........................39 2.7. Synthetic a priori and proprium ..........................................................................46 2.8. Maimon's Law of Determinability, Straight and Curved Lines ..........................51 2.9. Results: The straight line.....................................................................................53 3. The Circle............................................................................................................56 3.1. The Nominal and Real Definition of the Circle ..................................................56 3.2. Kant on the Definition and Construction of the Circle .......................................60 3.3. Maimon's Critique of Kant's Construction of a Circle. Maimon's "Ideas of the Understanding.".............................................................63 1 3.4. Constructing the Circle by Motion......................................................................64 3.5. Rigorous Construction: Circle and Polygon........................................................65 3.6. Kant's Critique of Maimon's "ideas of the understanding" .................................67 3.7. Maimon's Rebuttal of Kant's critique..................................................................69 3.8. Rota Aristotelis. Antinomies...............................................................................75 3.9. Maimon’s View of the Antinomy .......................................................................79 4. The Distrust of Intuition......................................................................................83 4.1. Asymptotes..........................................................................................................83 4.2. A Three-Lateral Figure Has Three Angles: Hic volo, hic iubeo.........................86 4.3. Hypothetical (non-Euclidean) Geometry, Hypothetical Metaphysics ................90 5. Maimon's "Concluding Remark": The Nature of Synthetic Judgments a priori ...............................................................................................94 5.1. Primary and Derivative Geometric Propositions ................................................96 5.1.1. Genuine Primary Geometrical Propositions........................................................97 5.1.2. Pseudo Primary Geometrical Propositions..........................................................100 5.1.3. Conversion of Primary Geometrical Propositions ..............................................102 5.1.4. The Axiom of Parallels: A synthetic Judgment a priori......................................105 6. Maimon's Notion of Construction and the Nature of a Philosophical System....110 7. Conclusions .........................................................................................................117 8. Appendix: Further Textual Evidence that Maimon Changed the Body of the Transcendentalphilosophie After Receiving Kant's Letter .................................123 2 Definition and Construction Salomon Maimon's Philosophy of Geometry1 Gideon Freudenthal Examples are indispensable in speculative treatises, and he who does not sup- ply them, where they are required, raises the just suspicion that perhaps he did not understand himself. But I maintain even more, namely, that only exam- ples from mathematics suit this purpose, since the objects of mathematics are intuitions determined in a precise fashion by concepts. (Salomon Maimon: Kritische Untersuchungen, Dedication to Graf Kalkreuth, GW VII, not paginated, p. VI-VII.) 1. Introduction Mathematics, especially geometry, played a central role in Maimon's thought. Geome- try exemplified in his eyes the best in human knowledge. His detailed discussion of various problems is of high interest in various respects. Here Maimon analyzes what "synthesis" is 1. The work on this essay began in weekly meetings with my colleague and friend Sabetai Unguru. Besides talking about everything between Heaven and Earth, we also read texts of Maimon and discussed my interpretation of them. Sabetail also commented on my first extensive draft of this essay. Without his wide knowledge of the history of mathematics, his uncompromising acumen and his enthusiasm this essay could not have been written. Hans Lausch (Sidney) meticulously and extensively commented on a previous draft of this essay. His suggestions were very helpful. My friend Oded Schechter read the first draft and conributed penetrating comments, Leo Corry (Tel-Aviv) and Michael Rouback (Jerusalem) also read previous drafts and offered valuable comments. I also profited from a long conversation with Daniel Warren (Berkeley), from help offered by Orna Harari and Ofra Rechter (Tel-Aviv) and from suggestions of Herbert Breger (Hannover). My annual stays at the Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science in Berlin are always conducive to my work. My stay there in the summer of 2005 proved especially valuable since it allowed me to read rare mathematical works of the eighteenth century. I am grateful to Jürgen Renn, the director of department 1 for the invitation and to the librarians for their great help. Unless otherwise indicated, all translations from Maimon's works and from Hebrew are my own. 3 and elaborates his notion of "true synthesis." A true synthesis must produce a new object with consequences that do not follow from either of its components. Since in geometry such syn- theses are due to construction and involve both the understanding and intuition, it is here that Maimon investigates the relation of understanding and intuition. Maimon argues in concreto for the impossibility of applying understanding to intuition and that, therefore, we do not have synthetic a priori knowledge in Kant's sense.2 We have apodictic knowledge a priori of the understanding which is not synthetic, and synthetic knowledge in intuition which is not apodictic. The heterogeneity of understanding and intuition generates the "general antinomy of human thought" and finally motivates Maimon to adopt his unique "Rational Dogmatism and Empirical Skepticism." Maimon conceives a synthetic judgment a priori as the predication of an "idion" in the Aristotelean tradition. Kant's key notion of "synthetic judgment a priori" did not improve on Aristotle's notion of "idion" and both remain obscure as long as we do not understand synthe- sis. In fact, Maimon's late criterion of synthetic judgments a priori is verbatim the characteri- zation he knew of "idion" (proprium in the Latin tradition, segula in Hebrew), namely that it is coextensive with the "essence" of the substance but not included in its definition. For example: The definition of a human being is animal rationale, and rationale is, therefore, his constitutive property. However, every animal rationale and only an animal rationale is also an animal riddens. Riddens is hence an idion (proprium, segula) of human beings.3 The ques- tion to be answered is how the proprium is connected to the constitutive property ("essence") of the subject. Concerning mathematics, Kant answered this question with his famous dictum 2. Maimon developed his philosophy of mathematics in a critique of Kant. This was in line with his style of work in general: Maimon elaborated his philosophy in commentaries on other authors. On commentaries as a philosophical genre and Maimon's commentaries in particular, see my "Salomon Maimon: Commentary as a Method of Philosophizing" (Hebr.), In: Da’at 53 (2004), pp. 126-160, and my "A Philosopher between Two Cultures." In: Gideon Freudenthal (ed.): Salomon Maimon: Rational Dogmatist, Empirical Skeptic. Dordrecht (Kluwer) 2003, pp. 1-17. It is an irony of history that Maimon is known as a "Kantian." Maimon developed a peculiar philosophy of his won, which is opposed to Kant's in most essentials. 3. The co-extensionality of the "essence" and the "proprium" entails that they may exchange their places in a predication: animal rationale est riddens; animal riddens est rationale. The question, therefore, opens up how we know that "rationale" is the constitutive property and "riddens" the proprium rather the other way around. 4 that it is the construction
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Marxist Philosophy and the Problem of Value
    Soviet Studies in Philosophy ISSN: 0038-5883 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/mrsp19 Marxist Philosophy and the Problem of Value O. G. Drobnitskii To cite this article: O. G. Drobnitskii (1967) Marxist Philosophy and the Problem of Value, Soviet Studies in Philosophy, 5:4, 14-24 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.2753/RSP1061-1967050414 Published online: 20 Dec 2014. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 1 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=mrsp19 Download by: [North Carolina State University], [Professor Marina Bykova] Date: 09 February 2017, At: 14:43 Theory of Value Voprosy filosofii, 1966, No. 7 0, G. Drobnitskii MARXIST PHILOSOPHY AND THE PROBLEM OF -*’VXLUr;* * In recent years, the question has been posed fact that things and phenomena in the world con- of the attitude of Marxist philosophy to what is stituting man’s environment have been endowed termed the problem of value. The point is not with such characteristics as worth, good and only that bourgeois axiology, which has been de- evil, beauty and ugliness, justice and injustice. veloping for three-quarters of a century, has to Doubtless, the phenomena of social consciousness be critically analyzed. Central to the question act in some aspect as “spiritual values,” i.e., is whether a Marxist axiology is possible. In they partake of the character of valuation norms. that connection the following is instructive. Finally, all these phenomena may be combined Authors who, with envious consistency, ignore under the single common notion of value.
    [Show full text]
  • Oppositions and Paradoxes in Mathematics and Philosophy
    OPPOSITIONS AND PARADOXES IN MATHEMATICS AND PHILOSOPHY John L. Bell Abstract. In this paper a number of oppositions which have haunted mathematics and philosophy are described and analyzed. These include the Continuous and the Discrete, the One and the Many, the Finite and the Infinite, the Whole and the Part, and the Constant and the Variable. Underlying the evolution of mathematics and philosophy has been the attempt to reconcile a number of interlocking oppositions, oppositions which have on occasion crystallized into paradox and which continue to haunt mathematics to this day. These include the Continuous and the Discrete, the One and the Many, the Finite and the Infinite, the Whole and the Part, and the Constant and the Variable. Let me begin with the first of these oppositions—that between continuity and discreteness. Continuous entities possess the property of being indefinitely divisible without alteration of their essential nature. So, for instance, the water in a bucket may be continually halved and yet remain wateri. Discrete entities, on the other hand, typically cannot be divided without effecting a change in their nature: half a wheel is plainly no longer a wheel. Thus we have two contrasting properties: on the one hand, the property of being indivisible, separate or discrete, and, on the other, the property of being indefinitely divisible and continuous although not actually divided into parts. 2 Now one and the same object can, in a sense, possess both of these properties. For example, if the wheel is regarded simply as a piece of matter, it remains so on being divided in half.
    [Show full text]
  • Kant on Empiricism and Rationalism
    HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY QUARTERLY Volume 30, Number 1, January 2013 KANT ON EMPIRICISM AND RATIONALISM Alberto Vanzo his paper aims to correct some widely held misconceptions concern- T ing Kant’s role in the formation of a widespread narrative of early modern philosophy.1 According to this narrative, which dominated the English-speaking world throughout the twentieth century,2 the early modern period was characterized by the development of two rival schools: René Descartes’s, Baruch Spinoza’s, and G. W. Leibniz’s rationalism; and John Locke’s, George Berkeley’s, and David Hume’s empiricism. Empiricists and rationalists disagreed on whether all concepts are de- rived from experience and whether humans can have any substantive a priori knowledge, a priori knowledge of the physical world, or a priori metaphysical knowledge.3 The early modern period came to a close, so the narrative claims, once Immanuel Kant, who was neither an empiri- cist nor a rationalist, combined the insights of both movements in his new Critical philosophy. In so doing, Kant inaugurated the new eras of German idealism and late modern philosophy. Since the publication of influential studies by Louis Loeb and David Fate Norton,4 the standard narrative of early modern philosophy has come increasingly under attack. Critics hold that histories of early modern philosophy based on the rationalism-empiricism distinction (RED) have three biases—three biases for which, as we shall see, Kant is often blamed. The Epistemological Bias. Since disputes regarding a priori knowledge belong to epistemology, the RED is usually regarded as an epistemologi- cal distinction.5 Accordingly, histories of early modern philosophy based on the RED tend to assume that the core of early modern philosophy lies in the conflict between the “competing and mutually exclusive epis- temologies” of “rationalism and empiricism.”6 They typically interpret most of the central doctrines, developments, and disputes of the period in the light of philosophers’ commitment to empiricist or rationalist epistemologies.
    [Show full text]
  • Russell's Paradox in Appendix B of the Principles of Mathematics
    HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF LOGIC, 22 (2001), 13± 28 Russell’s Paradox in Appendix B of the Principles of Mathematics: Was Frege’s response adequate? Ke v i n C. Kl e m e n t Department of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA Received March 2000 In their correspondence in 1902 and 1903, after discussing the Russell paradox, Russell and Frege discussed the paradox of propositions considered informally in Appendix B of Russell’s Principles of Mathematics. It seems that the proposition, p, stating the logical product of the class w, namely, the class of all propositions stating the logical product of a class they are not in, is in w if and only if it is not. Frege believed that this paradox was avoided within his philosophy due to his distinction between sense (Sinn) and reference (Bedeutung). However, I show that while the paradox as Russell formulates it is ill-formed with Frege’s extant logical system, if Frege’s system is expanded to contain the commitments of his philosophy of language, an analogue of this paradox is formulable. This and other concerns in Fregean intensional logic are discussed, and it is discovered that Frege’s logical system, even without its naive class theory embodied in its infamous Basic Law V, leads to inconsistencies when the theory of sense and reference is axiomatized therein. 1. Introduction Russell’s letter to Frege from June of 1902 in which he related his discovery of the Russell paradox was a monumental event in the history of logic. However, in the ensuing correspondence between Russell and Frege, the Russell paradox was not the only antinomy discussed.
    [Show full text]
  • A KANTIAN REPLY to BOLZANO's CRITIQUE of KANT's ANALYTIC-SYNTHETIC DISTINCTION Nicholas F. STANG University of Miami Introdu
    Grazer Philosophische Studien 85 (2012), 33–61. A KANTIAN REPLY TO BOLZANO’S CRITIQUE OF KANT’S ANALYTIC-SYNTHETIC DISTINCTION Nicholas F. STANG University of Miami Summary One of Bolzano’s objections to Kant’s way of drawing the analytic-synthetic distinction is that it only applies to judgments within a narrow range of syn- tactic forms, namely, universal affi rmative judgments. According to Bolzano, Kant cannot account for judgments of other syntactic forms that, intuitively, are analytic. A recent paper by Ian Proops also attributes to Kant the view that analytic judgments beyond a limited range of syntactic forms are impossible. I argue that, correctly understood, Kant’s conception of analyticity allows for analytic judgments of a wider range of syntactic forms. Introduction Although he praised Kant’s (re)discovery of the analytic-synthetic distinc- tion as having great signifi cance in the history of philosophy,1 Bolzano was sharply critical of how Kant drew that distinction. His criticisms include: (1) Th e distinction, as drawn by Kant, is unclear. (NAK, 34) 1. In Neuer Anti-Kant Příhonský writes: “Wir bemerken, daß, obgleich wir die Eintheilung der Urtheile in analytische und synthetische für eine der glücklichsten und einfl ußreichsten Entdeckungen halten, die je auf dem Gebiete der philosophischen Forschung sind gemacht worden, es uns doch scheinen wolle, als wenn sie von Kant nicht mit dem nöthigen Grade von Deutlichkeit aufgefaßt worden sei” (NAK, 34; cf. NAK, xxii). I say rediscovery because Bolzano recognizes that the distinction is inchoately present in Aristotle and Locke, and is made by Crusius in much the same way as Kant (WL, 87).
    [Show full text]
  • Hegel's Concept of Recognition As the Solution to Kant's Third Antinomy
    Chapter 12 Hegel’s Concept of Recognition as the Solution to Kant’s Third Antinomy Arthur Kok 1 Introduction In his Lectures on the history of philosophy, when discussing Kant’s third antin- omy, Hegel reproaches Kant for having “too much tenderness for the things”.1 In this contribution, I endeavor to explain what Hegel means by this criticism, and why it makes sense. Hegel values very much about Kant’s doctrine of the antinomies that it exposes the fundamental contradictions of reason. He calls this “the interest- ing side” of the antinomies.2 What is ‘interesting’ about them is that we cannot conceive of the absolute (uncaused) spontaneous origin of things, i.e. tran- scendental freedom, right away. The thesis that every causal chain of events presupposes a cause that is itself not caused contains the contradiction that an absolute spontaneity cannot take place according to rules, and hence can- not be understood in terms of causality.3 The antithesis, which rejects absolute spontaneity, makes this explicit, but it results in contradiction too: it is undeni- able that every causal chain posits an uncaused origin. The complete problem of the third antinomy thus is that we are forced to accept the assumption of transcendental freedom, but by doing so we postulate a contradiction. Kant argues that his transcendental idealism can resolve this contradic- tion. We shall see that Hegel does not accept Kant’s solution. I argue, however, that Hegel’s refutation of transcendental idealism does not mean that he does not take seriously the distinction between appearances and the Thing-in-itself.
    [Show full text]
  • Kant – Antinomy from Critique of Practical Reason
    IMMANUEL KANT Praäical philosophy TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY MARY J. GREGOR GENERAL INTRODUCTION BY ALLEN WOOD Yale University WM CAMBRIDGE ^ ^ UNIVERSITY PRESS Critique of practical reason IMMANUEL KANT good may be the whole object of a pure practical reason, that is, of a pure will, it is not on that account to be taken as its determining ground, and the moral law alone must be viewed as the ground for making the highest good and its realization or promotion the object. This reminder is impor- tant in so delicate a case as the determination of moral principles, where even the shghtest misinterpretation corrupts dispositions. For, it will have been seen from the Analytic that if one assumes any object under the name of a good as a determining ground of the will prior to the moral law and then derives from it the supreme practical principle, this would always produce heteronomy and supplant the moral principle. It is, however, evident that if the moral law is already included as supreme condition in the concept of the highest good, the highest good is then not merely objeä: the concept of it and the representation of its existence as possible by our practical reason are at the same time the 5:110 determining ground of the pure will because in that case the moral law, already included and thought in this concept, and no other object, in fact determines the will in accordance with the principle of autonomy. This order of concepts of the determination of the will must not be lost sight of, since otherwise we misunderstand ourselves and believe that we are con- tradicting ourselves even where everything stands together in the most perfect harmony.
    [Show full text]
  • An Introduction to Mechanized Reasoning Kerber, Manfred; Lange-Bever, Christoph; Rowat, Colin
    University of Birmingham An introduction to mechanized reasoning Kerber, Manfred; Lange-Bever, Christoph; Rowat, Colin DOI: 10.1016/j.jmateco.2016.06.005 License: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY) Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Citation for published version (Harvard): Kerber, M, Lange-Bever, C & Rowat, C 2016, 'An introduction to mechanized reasoning', Journal of Mathematical Economics, vol. 66, pp. 26-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmateco.2016.06.005 Link to publication on Research at Birmingham portal General rights Unless a licence is specified above, all rights (including copyright and moral rights) in this document are retained by the authors and/or the copyright holders. The express permission of the copyright holder must be obtained for any use of this material other than for purposes permitted by law. •Users may freely distribute the URL that is used to identify this publication. •Users may download and/or print one copy of the publication from the University of Birmingham research portal for the purpose of private study or non-commercial research. •User may use extracts from the document in line with the concept of ‘fair dealing’ under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (?) •Users may not further distribute the material nor use it for the purposes of commercial gain. Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern your use of this document. When citing, please reference the published version. Take down policy While the University of Birmingham exercises care and attention in making items available there are rare occasions when an item has been uploaded in error or has been deemed to be commercially or otherwise sensitive.
    [Show full text]
  • Conditional Antinomies
    CONDITIONAL ANTINOMIES Claudio Pizzi * Abstract: After a short premise about some paradoxical features of counterfactual reasoning, the paper tries to identify the analogues of the so-called Card Paradox and of the Liar antinomy by using a language containing the conditional operator symbolized by >. A first proposal is taken into account but dismissed since the resulting Liar is equivalent to the statement “the present statement is necessarily false”, which makes the corner operator indistinguishable from strict implication. A second proposed solution consists in paraphrasing every statement A into the conditional “I would lie if I said not-A”, where the conditional has the properties of the classical conditional operator. The “Epimenides” and “Truth-Teller” variants of the paradox are also examined in the last section. Keywords: Antinomy. Paradox. Liar. Epimenides. Counterfactuals. Conditionals. *Emeritus Siena University. Born in Milan (Italy) in 1944. Main research interests: Tense Logic, Conditional Logic, Philosophy of Causality, Abductive Reasoning. 19 CONDITIONAL ANTINOMIES . §1. Conditionals have been a source of paradoxes since the beginning of contemporary logic, as it is shown by the so-called paradoxes of material and strict implication. However, their more paradoxical features came out especially after the II World War, along with the first attempts to determine the logical properties of counterfactual conditionals1. It is in itself paradoxical, to begin with, that a contrary-to-fact antecedent has normally two legitimate consequents which are incompatible. For instance, under standard presuppositions about Apollo and human kind, both the following counterfactuals appear to be justified: (i) If Apollo were a man he would be mortal (ii) If Apollo were a man he would be the instance of an immortal man The paradox is here solved by the fact that one of the two conditionals, i.e.
    [Show full text]
  • The Feature of Scientific Explanation in the Teaching of Chemistry in the Environment of New Information of School Students' D
    International Journal of Environmental & Science Education, 2016, 11(4), 349-358 The Feature of Scientific Explanation in the Teaching of Chemistry in the Environment of New Information of School Students’ Developmental Education Suriya I. Gilmanshina, Iskander R. Gilmanshin & Rimma N. Sagitova Kazan (Volga region) Federal University, RUSSIA Asiya I. Galeeva Kazan State Power Engineering University, RUSSIA Received 15 September 2015 Revised 10 November 2015 Accepted 22 February 2016 The aim of this article is to disclose features of scientific explanation in teaching of chemistry in the environment of new information of school students’ developmental education. The leading approach to the study of this problem is the information and environmental approach that comprehensively address the problem of scientific explanation in the teaching of chemistry, to identify its characteristics and its role in the didactic system of developing training. In the article the concept of "informational- educational environment" and "personal information culture", identified the main function as the primary explanation of the procedure of scientific thinking in the teaching of chemistry. The features of scientific explanation in teaching chemistry in the new educational environment due to six types of relationships induction and deduction in explaining chemical phenomena, theories and laws. The choice of the ratio of induction and deduction affect the chemical nature of the studied object, the problem of knowing the object, the logical links between the structure of the object and the structure used to explain knowledge. It was found that the role of scientific explanation in the didactic system of developing education in the new information environment is the development of students forming their scientific outlook, logical thinking and culture of information activities.
    [Show full text]
  • Neo-‐Carnapian Quietism
    Neo-Carnapian Quietism: A global framework Suki Finn PhD University of York Philosophy June 2015 2 ABSTRACT This thesis explores the highly contested ontological question of what exists, and aims to deflate ontological debates in a quietist fashion, whilst providing an original, positive account of how to proceed by drawing upon ideas from Fictionalism, Meinongianism, and Dialetheism. I follow Rudolf Carnap with respect to the metaontological question of how ontology should be understood and practised, by developing a critique of the traditional realist/antirealist positions and reframing the ontological debate accordingly. Carnap argues that it is not meaningful to question reality in an external sense in order to assess what really exists, rather it is only meaningful to talk in an internal sense within a framework about what exists according to the framework rules. I use the concept of fictions in place of Carnap’s frameworks to argue that we ought to treat much seemingly ontologically committing language as consisting in nothing more than a useful heuristic and as being simply fictional. This reframes ontological debates as being based around the practical advantages of utilizing a way of speaking about existence in a pragmatic fictionalist manner. The aim of my thesis is thus to resurrect Carnap’s metaontology in the form of a unique and global fictionalism, that is divorced from the antirealism usually associated with fictionalism and based on quietism instead. My Neo-Carnapian position is influenced by the Meinongian view of non-existent objects, as I take ontological commitment as distinct from quantificational commitment in order to allow for our quantificational use of language to be ontologically neutral and metaphysically quiet.
    [Show full text]
  • Realist and Anti-Realist Approaches in Philosophy of Science: Perspective and Representational Pluralism in Scientific Discovery
    Realist and Anti-Realist Approaches in Philosophy of Science: Perspective and Representational Pluralism in Scientific Discovery Mark Coleman Department of Philosophy School of Humanities, Faculty of Arts The University of Adelaide Submitted for the degree of Master of Philosophy August 2016 Scientific Realism versus Anti-realism Mark Coleman 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Abstract 4 Thesis Declaration 5 Acknowledgements 6 Chapter 1 7 Scientific Realism versus Anti-Realism, an Introduction 7 Preamble 7 1.1 An overview of scientific realism 10 1.2 Anti-realism 12 1.3 Some realist responses 16 1.4 Variations and preliminary conclusions 18 Chapter 2 21 Anti-Realism: van Fraassen and His Critics 21 2.1 van Fraassen’s ‘arguments concerning scientific realism’ 21 2.1.1 van Fraassen’s account of realism 22 2.1.2 Constructive empiricism 23 2.1.3 van Fraassen on “The Theory/Observation ‘Dichotomy’” and the observable/unobservable distinction 26 2.1.4 van Fraassen on inference to the best explanation 28 2.2 Responses to van Fraassen 31 2.2.1 Observable versus unobservable 33 2.2.2 Churchland on observation, empirical adequacy and ontological commitment 36 2.2.3 van Fraassen, the microscope, and ‘public hallucinations’ 41 2.2.4 Underdetermination 43 2.2.5 Boyd’s defence of realism: underdetermination and the importance of theoretical induction 46 2.2.6 Ladyman and Ross, and Ellis on underdetermination 50 2.2.7 Epistemic virtues and theory evaluation: Churchland on beliefworthiness and the super-empirical virtues 52 2.3 Giere’s ‘modest’
    [Show full text]