A Metaphysics for Scientific Realism

A Metaphysics for Scientific Realism Cambridge University Press
9780521876490 - A METAPHYSICS FOR SCIENTIFIC REALISM - by Anjan Chakravartty
Table of Contents

List of tables		page ix
List of figures		x
Preface		xi
List of abbreviations		xvii
Part 1 Scientific realism today
1	Realism and antirealism; metaphysics and empiricism	3
	1.1 The trouble with common sense	3
	1.2 A conceptual taxonomy	8
	1.3 Metaphysics, empiricism, and scientific knowledge	13
	1.4 The rise of stance empiricism	17
	1.5 The fall of the critique of metaphysics	20
2	Selective scepticism: entity realism, structural realism, semirealism	27
	2.1 The entities are not alone	27
	2.2 Lessons from epistemic structuralism	33
	2.3 Semirealism (or: how to be a sophisticated realist)	39
	2.4 Optimistic and pessimistic inductions on past science	45
	2.5 The minimal interpretation of structure	52
3	Properties, particulars, and concrete structures	58
	3.1 Inventory: what realists know	58
	3.2 Mutually entailed particulars and structures	61
	3.3 Ontic structuralism: farewell to objects?	70
	3.4 Ontological theory change	76
	3.5 Return of the motley particulars	80
Part II Metaphysical foundations
4	Causal realism and causal processes	89
	4.1 Causal connections and de re necessity	89
	4.2 Is causal realism incoherent?	96
	4.3 A first answer: relations between events	102
	4.4 A better answer: causal processes	107
	4.5 Processes for empiricists	114
5	Dispositions, property identity, and laws of nature	119
	5.1 The causal property identity thesis	119
	5.2 Property naming and necessity	126
	5.3 Objections: epistemic and metaphysical	134
	5.4 Vacuous laws and the ontology of causal properties	141
	5.5 Causal laws, ceteris paribus	147
6	Sociability: natural and scientific kinds	151
	6.1 Law statements and the role of kinds	151
	6.2 Essences and clusters: two kinds of kinds	156
	6.3 Clusters and biological species concepts	162
	6.4 Sociability (or: how to make kinds with properties)	168
	6.5 Beyond objectivity, subjectivity, and promiscuity	174
Part III Theory meets world
7	Representing and describing: theories and models	183
	7.1 Descriptions and non-linguistic representations	183
	7.2 Representing via abstraction and idealization	187
	7.3 Extracting information from models	192
	7.4 The inescapability of correspondence	199
	7.5 Approximation and geometrical structures	205
8	Approximate truths about approximate truth	212
	8.1 Knowledge in the absence of truth simpliciter	212
	8.2 Measuring “truth-likeness”	214
	8.3 Truth as a comparator for art and science	218
	8.4 Depiction versus denotation; description versus reference	224
	8.5 Products versus production; theories and models versus practice	230
References		235
Index		244

Details

Knowing the Unobservable

Anjan Chakravartty

University of Toronto

Hardback

For price and ordering options, inspection copy requests, and reading lists please select:

Contents

Quick search

Related areas