Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T05:38:41.876Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Progress: Metaphysical and Otherwise

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Robert Wachbroit
Robert Wachbroit*
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, Center for Philosophy and Public Policy
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Realism about progress–that progress consists in the obtaining of some metaphysical relation between a sequence of theories and the world–is often thought to be required by realism about the representational character of theories. The purpose of this paper is to show how one can be a realist about theories without being a realist about progress. The result is a view that cannot be at odds with what the history of science shows.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 53 , Issue 3 , September 1986 , pp. 354 - 371
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association 1986

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.)

References

Boyd, Richard (1973), “Realism, Underdetermination and a Causal Theory of Evidence”, Noûs 7: 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carnap, Rudolf (1956), “The Methodological Character of Theoretical Concepts,” in Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 1. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 33–76.Google Scholar
Davidson, Donald (1984), Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Davidson, Donald (1974), “On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme,” in Davidson (1984).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dreyer, J. (1953), A History of Astronomy From Thales to Kepler. New York: Dover.Google Scholar
Feyerabend, Paul (1975), Against Method. London: New Left Books.Google Scholar
Feyerabend, Paul (1981), Problems of Empiricism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, Hartry (1972), “Tarski's Theory of Truth”, Journal of Philosophy 69: 347–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Michael (1979), “Truth and Confirmation”, Journal of Philosophy 76: 361–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glymour, Clark (1980), Theory and Evidence. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Grandy, Richard (1973), “Reference, Meaning and Belief”, Journal of Philosophy 70: 439–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanson, Norwood (1958), Patterns of Discovery. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Heath, Thomas (1913), Aristarchus of Samos. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Carl, Hempel (1979), “Scientific Rationality: Analytic vs Pragmatic Perspectives”, in Rationality Today, Geraets, T. (ed.). Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.Google Scholar
Hexter, Jack (1979), On Historians. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Horwich, Paul (1982a), Probability and Evidence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Horwich, Paul (1982b), “Three Forms of Realism”, Synthese 51: 181–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howson, C. (ed.) (1976), Method and Appraisal in the Physical Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitcher, Philip (1978), “Theories, Theorists and Theoretical Change”, Philosophical Review 87: 519–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kripke, Saul (1982), Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Thomas (1970), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 2nd edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Thomas (1982), “Commensurability, Comparability, Communicability”, in PSA 1982, Asquith, P. and Nickles, T. (eds.). Vol. 2. East Lansing, Michigan: Philosophy of Science Association.Google Scholar
Lakatos, Imre (1978a), The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakatos, Imre (1978b), Mathematics, Science and Epistemology. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laudan, Larry (1977), Progress and Its Problems. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Laudan, Larry (1981), “A Confutation of Convergent Realism”, Philosophy of Science 48: 19–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, D. (1974), “Popper's Qualitative Theory of Verisimilitude”, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 25: 166–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niiniluoto, Ilkka (1978), “Truthlikeness: Comments on Recent Discussion”, Synthese 38: 281–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niiniluoto, Ilkka (1980), “Scientific Progress”, Synthese 45: 427–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Popper, Karl (1962), Conjectures and Refutations. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Putnam, Hilary (1975), Mathematics, Matter and Method. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Quine, W. (1960), Word and Object. New York: Technology Press of MIT and John Wiley.Google Scholar
Scheffler, I. (1967), Science and Subjectivity. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Shapere, D. (1966), “Meaning and Scientific Change”, in Mind and Cosmos, Colodny, R. (ed.). Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. 41–85.Google Scholar
Stegmüller, Wolfgang (1976), The Structure and Dynamics of Theories. Boston and Dordrecht: Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suppe, Frederick (1977), The Structure of Scientific Theories. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Tichý, P. (1974), “On Popper's Definition of Verisimilitude”, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 25: 155–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Fraassen, Bas (1980), The Scientific Image. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wachbroit, Robert (forthcoming), “Theories of Rationality and Principles of Charity”, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.Google Scholar