The success of science:
Accurate predictions of well-established bodies of scientific theories about observable phenomena in a wide variety of particular instances. Example: Newtonian mechanics.
• It is one task of philosophers of science to explain why it is that tour accepted scientific theories enjoy such success.
• Why are scientific theories instrumentally successful? o Acceptance of a scientific theory is its instrumental success—if a candidate for a new theory gives obviously incorrect predictions about what we observe, then it will soon cease to be a viable candidate. o What is it about our accepted theories that make them predictively reliable?
1.2 Realism and Anti-Realism
• One point of difference between realism and anti-realism concerns the interpretations of theoretical terms in claims of science.
• Interpretation of theoretical: the way in which claims about unobservable entities (such as magnetics fields or electrons) are to be understood.
• If a successful scientific theory utilizes the theoretical term neutrino then the realist infers that such objects exist, as described by the theory, in the world.
• Anti-realists, typically deny that theoretical terms can be understood as actually referring to real objects in the world, though many insist that scientific theories must be understood as purporting to describe real objects in the world.
• Another point of contention btw realist and ant-realists concerns the confirmation of scientific theories.
• Anti-realist argues there are an infinite number of possible theories, with radically different claims about unobservable, which could entail the observed consequences.
• Thus, we must remain agnostic about the claims a theory makes about unobservable entities, for that which we can observe speaks nothing about that which we cannot observe. o This argument, in its various