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On Saving the Phenomena and the Mice: A Reply to Bourgeois Concerning Van Fraassen's Image of Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Jeff Foss
Jeff Foss*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Victoria
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Abstract

In the fusillade he lets fly against Foss (1984), Bourgeois (1987) sometimes hits a live target. I admit that I went beyond the letter of van Fraassen's The Scientific Image (1980), making inferences and drawing conclusions which are often absurd. I maintain, however, that the absurdities must be charged to van Fraassen's account. While I cannot redress every errant shot of Bourgeois, his essay reveals the need for further discussion of the concepts of the phenomena and the observables as used by van Fraassen.

Type
Discussion
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , June 1991 , pp. 278 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 The Philosophy of Science Association

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References

Bourgeois, W. (1987), “Discussion: On Rejecting Foss's Image of Van Fraassen”, Philosophy of Science 54: 303–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foss, J. (1984), “On Accepting van Fraassen's Image of Science”, Philosophy of Science 51: 79–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Fraassen, B. C. (1980), The Scientific Image. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wylie, A. (1986), “Arguments for Scientific Realism: The Ascending Spiral”, American Philosophical Quarterly 23: 287–297.Google Scholar