Article ID: CBB000410758

Empirical Adequacy and Ramsification (2004)

unapi

Structural realism has been proposed as an epistemological position interpolating between realism and sceptical anti-realism about scientific theories. The structural realist who accepts a scientific theory T thinks that T is empirically correct, and furthermore is a realist about the 'structural content' of T. But what exactly is 'structural content'? One proposal is that the 'structural content' of a scientific theory may be associated with its Ramsey sentence [real](T). However, Demopoulos and Friedman have argued, using ideas drawn from Newman's earlier criticism of Russell's structuralism, that this move fails to achieve an interesting intermediate position between realism and anti-realism. Rather, [real](T) adds little content beyond the instrumentalistically acceptable claim that the theory T is empirically adequate. Here, I formulate carefully the crucial claim of Demopoulos and Friedman, and show that the Ramsey sentence [real](T) is true just in case T possesses a full model which is empirically correct and satisfies a certain cardinality condition on its theoretical domain. This suggests that structural realism is not a position significantly different from the anti-realism from which it attempts to distinguish itself.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000410758/

Similar Citations

Book Parsons, Keith M.; (2014)
It Started with Copernicus: Vital Questions about Science (/isis/citation/CBB001510107/)

Article Demopoulos, William; (2003)
On the Rational Reconstruction of our Theoretical Knowledge (/isis/citation/CBB000410731/)

Book Salmon, Wesley C.; Dowe, Phil; Salmon, Merrilee H.; (2005)
Reality and Rationality (/isis/citation/CBB000600034/)

Chapter Bas C. van Fraassen; (2023)
Su realismo scientifico ed empirismo costruttivo (/isis/citation/CBB875663088/)

Book Darrell P. Rowbottom; (2019)
The Instrument of Science: Scientific Anti-Realism Revitalised (/isis/citation/CBB190126629/)

Article Kenneth R. Westphal; (2015)
Causal Realism and the Limits of Empiricism: Some Unexpected Insights from Hegel (/isis/citation/CBB144644522/)

Book Clarke, Steve; Lyons, Timothy D.; (2002)
Recent Themes in the Philosophy of Science: Scientific Realism and Commonsense (/isis/citation/CBB000201253/)

Book Sankey, Howard; (1999)
Causation and the Laws of Nature (/isis/citation/CBB000110139/)

Book Michela Massimi; (2022)
Perspectival Realism (/isis/citation/CBB041766673/)

Article Carus, A. W.; (2010)
The Pragmatics of Scientific Knowledge: Howard Stein's Reshaping of Logical Empiricism (/isis/citation/CBB001221444/)

Chapter Daston, Lorraine; (2010)
The Empire of Observation, 1600--1800 (/isis/citation/CBB001221449/)

Article Bednarczyk, A.; (2006)
Alexander von Humboldt and General Methods of Scientific Cognition (/isis/citation/CBB000931648/)

Book Taper, Mark L.; Lele, Subhash R.; (2004)
The Nature of Scientific Evidence: Statistical, Philosophical, and Empirical Considerations (/isis/citation/CBB000750947/)

Article Gelfert, Axel; (2011)
Model-Based Representation in Scientific Practice: New Perspectives (/isis/citation/CBB001024167/)

Book Thomas S. Kuhn; Bojana Mladenovic; (2022)
The Last Writings of Thomas S. Kuhn: Incommensurability in Science (/isis/citation/CBB418530960/)

Book Hasok Chang; (2023)
Realism for Realistic People (/isis/citation/CBB344233828/)

Article Stanford, P. Kyle; (2005)
August Weismann's Theory of the Germ-Plasm and the Problem of Unconceived Alternatives (/isis/citation/CBB000670618/)

Authors & Contributors
Gori, Pietro
Parsons, Keith M.
Westphal, Kenneth R.
Taper, Mark L.
Stanford, P. Kyle
Sober, Elliott R.
Journals
HOPOS
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Monist: An International Quarterly Journal of General Philosophical Inquiry
Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
Publishers
University of Chicago Press
Oxford University Press
Carocci Editore
Routledge
Prometheus Books
Kluwer Academic
Concepts
Philosophy of science
Realism
Empiricism
Methodology of science; scientific method
Epistemology
Rationalism
People
Weismann, August
Stein, Howard
Ramsey, Frank Plumpton
Peirce, Charles Sanders
Mach, Ernst
Laudan, Larry
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
18th century
21st century
17th century
Early modern
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment