Notice bibliographique
- Notice
Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Texte noté : sans médiation
Auteur(s) : Rowbottom, Darrell P. (1975-....)
Titre(s) : The instrument of science [Texte imprimé] : scientific anti-realism revitalised / Darrell P. Rowbottom
Publication : New York : Routledge, Taylor & Francis group, copyright 2019
Description matérielle : 1 vol. (215 p.) : ill. ; 24 cm
Collection : Routledge studies in the philosophy of science ; 19
Lien à la collection : Routledge studies in the philosophy of science
Note(s) : Bibliogr. p. 190-209. Index
Roughly, instrumentalism is the view that science is primarily, and should primarily
be, an instrument for furthering our practical ends. It has fallen out of favour because
historically influential variants of the view, such as logical positivism, suffered
from serious defects. In this book, however, Darrell P. Rowbottom develops a new form
of instrumentalism, which is more sophisticated and resilient than its predecessors.
This position—‘cognitive instrumentalism'—involves three core theses. First, science
makes theoretical progress primarily when it furnishes us with more predictive power
or understanding concerning observable things. Second, scientific discourse concerning
unobservable things should only be taken literally in so far as it involves observable
properties or analogies with observable things. Third, scientific claims about unobservable
things are probably neither approximately true nor liable to change in such a way
as to increase in truthlikeness.There are examples from science throughout the book,
and Rowbottom demonstrates at length how cognitive instrumentalism fits with the development
of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century chemistry and physics, and especially
atomic theory. Drawing upon this history, Rowbottom also argues that there is a kind
of understanding, empirical understanding, which we can achieve without having true,
or even approximately true, representations of unobservable things. In closing the
book, he sets forth his view on how the distinction between the observable and unobservable
may be drawn, and compares cognitive instrumentalism with key contemporary alternatives
such as structural realism, constructive empiricism, and semirealism
Sujet(s) : Philosophie des sciences
Instrumentalisme
Réalisme (philosophie)
Indice(s) Dewey :
501 (23e éd.) = Sciences naturelles et mathématiques - Philosophie et théorie
Identifiants, prix et caractéristiques : ISBN 9780367077457 (rel.)
Identifiant de la notice : ark:/12148/cb47130864p
Notice n° :
FRBNF47130864
(notice reprise d'un réservoir extérieur)
Table des matières : Science as an instrument: an introduction ; Scientific progress and the value of
science ; The limits of scientific discourse about the unobservable ; Unconceived
alternatives and the contingency of science's content ; Historical illuminations:
1885-1930 ; Empirical understanding ; Objections and comparisons ; The illusion
of scientific realism ; What is scientific realism?
