In its original form due to Ian Hacking, entity realism postulates a criterion of manipulative success which replaces explanatory virtue as the criterion of justified scientific belief. The article analyses the foundations on which this postulate rests and identifies the conditions on which one can derive a form of entity realism from it. It then develops in detail an extensive class of counter...

Although during recent years in the field of special education there has been much debate regarding inclusion and people’s beliefs around disability, it is suggested that what has been lacking in many of the discussions is any coherent guiding philosophy that helps direct research in this area. The paper proposes that critical realism, developed by philosopher Roy Bhaskar, may provide such a fr...

Indispensability arguments for realism about mathematical entitieshave come under serious attack in recent years. To my mind the most profoundattack has come from Penelope Maddy, who argues that scientific/mathematicalpractice doesn't support the key premise of the indispensability argument, thatis, that we ought to have ontological commitment to those entities that are indis-<l...

The paper discusses the work carried out over the past decade within ISO TC59/SC8 and RILEM TC139-DBS committees towards the development of a durability test standard for sealants. In 2001, RILEM TC139-DBS published a RILEM Technical Recommendation (RTR) on a durability test method for curtain wall joint sealants. The paper discusses the development of this test method as well as results obtain...