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Structural Distinctions: Entities, Structures, and Changes in Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Angelo Cei
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Abstract

I argue that the pessimistic meta-induction (PMI) seems to point an ontological priority of the relations over the objects of the scientific theories of the kind suggested by French and Ladyman (2003). My strategy will involve a critical examination of epistemic structural realism (ESR) and an historical case-study: the prediction of Zeeman's effect in Lorentz's theory of the electron.

Type
Structural Realism
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 72 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2004 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers , December 2005 , pp. 1385 - 1396
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

I wish to thank Steven French for patient suggestions, corrections, and advice. Discussions with Juha Saatsi and with the people of HPS and Postgraduate informal seminars of the School of Philosophy of the University of Leeds helped me to clarify the philosophical aspects of the work. I am in debt to Sara Lombardi for illuminating discussions on the physics. Mauro Dorato and Joseph Melia kindly read and carefully commented on earlier versions of this work.

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