The instrument of science : scientific anti-realism revitalised PDF
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The Instrument of Science This accessible and engaging defence of instrumentalism is essential reading for all those interested in the debate between realism and instrumentalism in the philosophy of science. —Jon Williamson, University of Kent, UK Analyzing fascinating examples from the history of science, this book builds a compelling and carefully argued case for cognitive instrumentalism: that is, for a philosophy of science that takes seriously what we can understand, and do, with science in the world as we experience it. —Axel Gelfert, Technical University of Berlin, Germany 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. Overall, this book offers a strong defence of instrumentalism that will be of interest to scholars and students working on the debate about realism in philosophy of science. Darrell P. Rowbottom is Professor of Philosophy at Lingnan University, and serves as Editor in Chief of Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A. He is the author of Popper’s Critical Rationalism: A Philosophical Investigation (Routledge, 2011) and Probability (2015). He also co-edited Intuitions (2014) with Anthony R. Booth. He has published numerous articles in leading journals, including Analysis, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Philosophy of Science, Synthese, and Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (Parts A and C). Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Science Evolution, Rationality and Cognition A Cognitive Science for the Twenty-First Century Edited by António Zilhão Conceptual Systems Harold I. Brown Nancy Cartwright’s Philosophy of Science Edited by Stephan Hartmann, Carl Hoefer, and Luc Bovens Fictions in Science Philosophical Essays on Modeling and Idealization Edited by Mauricio Suárez Karl Popper’s Philosophy of Science Rationality without Foundations Stefano Gattei Emergence in Science and Philosophy Edited by Antonella Corradini and Timothy O’Connor Popper’s Critical Rationalism A Philosophical Investigation Darrell P. Rowbottom Conservative Reductionism Michael Esfeld and Christian Sachse Models, Simulations, and Representations Paul Humphreys and Cyrille Imbert Platonism, Naturalism, and Mathematical Knowledge James Robert Brown Thought Experiments in Science, Philosophy, and the Arts Edited by Mélanie Frappier, Letitia Meynell, and James Robert Brown Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Revisited Edited by Vasso Kindi and Theodore Arabatzis Contemporary Philosophical Naturalism and Its Implications Edited by Bana Bashour and Hans D. Muller Science after the Practice Turn in Philosophy, History, and the Social Studies of Science Edited by Léna Soler, Sjoerd Zwart, Vincent Israel-Jost, and Michael Lynch Causation, Evidence, and Inference Julian Reiss Conceptual Change and the Philosophy of Science Alternative Interpretations of the A Priori David J. Stump Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science Edited by William M.R. Simpson, Robert C. Koons and Nicholas J. Teh Essence in the Age of Evolution A New Theory of Natural Kinds Christopher J. Austin The Instrument of Science Scientific Anti-Realism Revitalised Darrell P. Rowbottom For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/ Routledge-Studies-in-the-Philosophy-of-Science/book-series/POS The Instrument of Science Scientific Anti-Realism Revitalised Darrell P. Rowbottom First published 2019 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2019 Taylor & Francis The right of Darrell P. Rowbottom to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Rowbottom, Darrell P., 1975– author. Title: The instrument of science : scientific anti-realism revitalised / Darrell P. Rowbottom. Description: 1 [edition]. | New York : Taylor & Francis, 2019. | Series: Routledge studies in the philosophy of science ; 19 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019005339 | ISBN 9780367077457 (hardback) Subjects: LCSH: Science—Philosophy. | Instrumentalism (Philosophy) | Realism. Classification: LCC Q175 .R69 2019 | DDC 501—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019005339 ISBN: 978-0-367-07745-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-02251-7 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC To my colleagues and postgraduate students at Lingnan University, past and present. Thank you for making work such fun.
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