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Retrieving the Point of the Realism-Instrumentalism Debate: Mach vs. Planck on Science Education Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Steve Fuller
Steve Fuller*
Affiliation:
University of Durham
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Extract

The realism-instrumentalism debate (RID) is often seen as the core debate in philosophy of science, yet increasing numbers of philosophers have followed Fine's (1984) lead in questioning the point of this debate. Fine's largely unchallenged rendition of RID makes it is easy to see why. RID appears doomed to stalemate. According to Fine, realists and instrumentalists are both trying to account for the string of progressive episodes in the history of science. The two sides are said to agree on what those episodes are and that they constitute progress. However, it seems that every realist story of one such episode can be matched by an instrumentalist one—and vice versa. As Fine sees it, any such story is merely an attempt to extract surplus philosophical value from the historical labors of scientists. It only adds a misleading air of inevitability to their original efforts.

Type
Part V. Realism and its Guises
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1994 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1994 , 1994 , pp. 200 - 208
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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