Confirmation for a Modest Realism

Kitcher’s Modest Realism: the Reconceptualization of Scientific Objectivity

In Science, Truth and Democracy, Kitcher moderates the strongest ontological realist thesis he defended in The Advancement of Science, with the aim of making compatible the correspondence theory of truth with conceptual relativity. However, it is not clear that both things could be harmonized. If our knowledge of the world is mediated by our categories and concepts; if the selection of these ca...

Quantum Physics: A Case for Anti-Realism?

quantum physics: a case for anti-realism?

the aim of the present paper is to sbo» that anti-realism in science, 1vhich has a1;guab/y become more fashionable in recentyears, contrary to tuha: its proponents assert, cannot make use of quantum mechanics and its impressiue achievements as a frump card in justifying its claims. i will argue that scientific anti-realism far from providing scientific communiry with a progressive methodologica...

A modest proposal for research.

Complexity is conducive to dependence on specialists on the one hand, and mistrust of them on the other. If you read in the Bulletin, “A dendrogram of sequence-relatedness was constructed by the method of the VPI maximumlikelihood bootstrap consensus tree (PUZZLE, version 4.0)” (1), and this is not in your area of specialization, you might respect it for its apparent professionalism, resent it ...

Moral Realism, Skepticism and Anti-realism: a Critical Analysis of the Criteria for Moral Realism

Despite the fact that realism has long been the dominant outlook in science, ethical realism has been thought to be especially problematic. Even the most steadfast realists in other fields have questioned the existence of moral truths. It seems that the would be moral realist has his work cut out for him. The first step necessary for any defense of moral realism will be the identification of th...