Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T19:26:56.016Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

No Refuge for Realism: Selective Confirmation and the History of Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

P. Kyle Stanford
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Realists have responded to challenges from the historical record of successful but ultimately rejected theories with what I call the selective confirmation strategy: arguing that only idle parts of past theories have been rejected, while truly success-generating features have been confirmed by further inquiry. I argue first, that this strategy is unconvincing without some prospectively applicable criterion of idleness for theoretical posits, and second, that existing efforts to provide one either convict all theoretical posits of idleness (Kitcher) or stand refuted by detailed consideration of the very examples (optical/electromagnetic ether, caloric fluid) to which they appeal (Psillos). I also argue that available avenues for improving on these proposals are unpromising.

Type
Realism
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 70 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2002 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers , December 2003 , pp. 913 - 925
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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

‡

My thanks to Anjan Chakravartty, Philip Kitcher, Stathis Psillos, Larry Laudan, David Lemoine, Jarrett Leplin, Andre Kukla, Jeff Barrett, Pen Maddy, David Malament, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Alan Nelson, James Ladyman, Alexander Rosenberg, Arthur Fine, Hasok Chang, P. D. Magnus, Patrick Forber, and Tim Lyons, as well as audiences at Stanford University, the CSHPS, the BSPS, the PSA, and the members of my “Historical Turn” seminar for helpful discussions and comments.

‡

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. SES-0094001. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

References

Black, Joseph (1803), Lectures on the Elements of Chemistry, vol. 1. Revised and prepared for publication in 2 volumes by John Robison (ed.). Edinburgh: Mundell and Son.Google Scholar
Donovan, Arthur (1993), Antoine Lavoisier: Science, Administration, and Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Guerlac, Henry (1976), “Chemistry as a Branch of Physics: Laplace's Collaboration with Lavoisier”, Chemistry as a Branch of Physics: Laplace's Collaboration with Lavoisier 7:193–276.Google Scholar
Kitcher, Philip (1993), The Advancement of Science. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Laudan, L. ([1981] 1996), “A Confutation of Convergent Realism”, in Papineau, D. (ed.), The Philosophy of Science. New York: Oxford University Press, 107–138.Google Scholar
Lavoisier, Antoine (1965a). Oeuvres de Lavoisier (1743–1794), 6 vols. Vols. 1–4, J. B. Dumas (ed.); vols. 5–6, Edouard Grimaux (ed.). New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation. [Originally published by Imprimerie Impériale, Paris, 1862–1893].Google Scholar
Lavoisier, Antoine (1965b), Traité de Chimie, in three parts. Reprinted in vol. 1 of Lavoisier (1965a), 1–407. [Originally pubished by Cuchet, Paris, 1789, in two volumes].Google Scholar
Lavoisier, Antoine (1972), Mémoires de Chimie, 2 vols [microform]. New York: Redex Microprint. [Originally published in Paris, s. n., 1805?].Google Scholar
Lavoisier, Antoine, and Laplace, Pierre de ([1783] 1982), Memoir on Heat. Trans. and introd. by Guerlac, Henry. New York: Neale Watson Academic Publications.Google Scholar
Lenoir, Timothy (1981), “Teleology Without Regrets. The Transformation of Physiology in Germany: 1790–1847”, Teleology Without Regrets. The Transformation of Physiology in Germany: 1790–1847 12:293–354.Google Scholar
Leplin, Jarrett (1997), A Novel Defense of Scientific Realism. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Maxwell, James Clerk ([1873] 1955), A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, Vol. 2, 3d ed. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McKie, Douglas, and Heathcote, Neils H. de V. ([1935] 1975), The Discovery of Specific and Latent Heats. London: E. Arnold. Reprinted by Arno Press, New York.Google Scholar
Morris, R. J. (1972), “Lavoisier and the Caloric Theory”, Lavoisier and the Caloric Theory 6:1–38.Google Scholar
Psillos, Stathis (1999), Scientific Realism: How Science Tracks Truth. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar