Coherence of Our Best Scientific Theories |
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Authors: | Seungbae Park |
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Institution: | (1) Division of General Studies, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, Republic of Korea |
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Abstract: | Putnam in Realism in mathematics and Elsewhere, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1975) infers from the success of a
scientific theory to its approximate truth and the reference of its key term. Laudan in Philos Sci 49:19–49 (1981) objects
that some past theories were successful, and yet their key terms did not refer, so they were not even approximately true.
Kitcher in The advancement of science, Oxford University Press, New York (1993) replies that the past theories are approximately
true because their working posits are true, although their idle posits are false. In contrast, I argue that successful theories
which cohere with each other are approximately true, and that their key terms refer. My position is immune to Laudan’s counterexamples
to Putnam’s inference and yields a solution to a problem with Kitcher’s position. |
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