Saatsi, J orcid.org/0000-0002-8440-8761 (2019) What is theoretical progress of science? Synthese, 196 (2). pp. 611-631. ISSN 0039-7857
Abstract
The epistemic conception of scientific progress equates progress with accumulation of scientific knowledge. I argue that the epistemic conception fails to fully capture scientific progress: theoretical progress, in particular, can transcend scientific knowledge in important ways. Sometimes theoretical progress can be a matter of new theories ‘latching better onto unobservable reality’ in a way that need not be a matter of new knowledge. Recognising this further dimension of theoretical progress is particularly significant for understanding scientific realism, since realism is naturally construed as the claim that science makes theoretical progress. Some prominent realist positions (regarding fundamental physics, in particular) are best understood in terms of commitment to theoretical progress that cannot be equated with accumulation of scientific knowledge.
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Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
Keywords: | Bird; Newton; Scientific knowledge; Scientific progress; Scientific realism |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science (Leeds) > School of Philosophy (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Arts & Humanities Research Council AHRC AH/L008955/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 12 May 2016 08:59 |
Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2023 22:05 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Netherlands |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s11229-016-1118-9 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:99600 |
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