Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T04:51:44.603Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On Accepting Van Fraassen's Image of Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Jeff Foss
Jeff Foss*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Manitoba
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In his book, The Scientific Image, van Fraassen lucidly draws an alternative to scientific realism, which he calls “Constructive Empiricism”. In this epistemological theory, the concept of observability plays the pivotal role: acceptable theories may be believed only where what they say solely concerns observables. Van Fraassen develops a concept of observability which is, as he admits, vague, relative, science-dependent, and anthropocentric. I draw out unacceptable consequences of each of these aspects of his concept. Also, I argue against his assumption that “empirical adequacy” is the same thing as “saving the phenomena”, according to his sense of the expressions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , March 1984 , pp. 79 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

I am indebted to the comments of the two referees of this journal who read an earlier version of this paper; they were, respectively, frank and constructive.

References

Bohr, Niels (1949), “Discussion with Einstein on Epistemological Problems in Atomic Physics”, in Paul Schilpp (ed.), Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist. LaSalle: Open Court.Google Scholar
Churchland, Patricia Smith (1980), “A Perspective on Mind-Brain Research”, Journal of Philosophy LXXVII; 4: 185–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Churchland, Paul M. (1979), Scientific Realism and the Plasticity of Mind. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Churchland, Paul M. (1982), “The Anti-Realist Epistemology of van Fraassen's The Scientific Image”, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly LXIII, 3: 226–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maxwell, Grover (1962), “The Ontological Status of Theoretical Entities”, in Herbert Feigl and Grover Maxwell (eds.), Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science III: 3–27.Google Scholar
Quine, W. V. (1969), “Epistemology Naturalized”, in W. V. Quine, Ontological Relativity and Other Essays. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, Bertrand (1971), The Problems of Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press. See especially ch. 5.Google Scholar
van Fraassen, Bas C. (1980), The Scientific Image. New York: Clarendon Press, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar