Science, Action, and Reality

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vii

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2. Philosophy and Transcendental Thinking

   • Raimo Tuomela

   Pages 1-9

3. The Manifest Image and the Scientific Image

   • Raimo Tuomela

   Pages 10-21

4. The Myth of the Given World, Knowledge, and Language

   • Raimo Tuomela

   Pages 22-36

5. Scientific Realism — Science’s Own Philosophy

   • Raimo Tuomela

   Pages 37-64

6. Methodological Arguments for Scientific Realism

   • Raimo Tuomela

   Pages 65-94

7. Internal Realism

   • Raimo Tuomela

   Pages 95-123

8. Science as the Measure of What There is

   • Raimo Tuomela

   Pages 124-140

9. Social Action and Systems Theory

   • Raimo Tuomela

   Pages 141-167

10. The Growth of Scientific Knowledge

    • Raimo Tuomela

    Pages 168-209

11. Science, Prescience, and Pseudoscience

    • Raimo Tuomela

    Pages 210-235

12. Back Matter

    Pages 236-275

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Were one to characterize the aims of this book ambitiously, it could be said to sketch the philosophical foundations or underpinnings of the scientific world view or, better, of the scientific conception of the world. In any case, it develops a comprehensive philosophical view, one which takes science seri­ ously as the best method for getting to know the ontological aspects of the world. This view is a kind of scientific realism - causal internal realism, as it is dubbed in the book. This brand of realism is "tough" in matters of ontology but "soft" in matters of semantics and epistemology. An ancestor of the book was published in Finnish under the title Tiede, toiminta ja todellisuus (Gaudeamus, 1983). That book is a shortish undergraduate-level monograph. However, as some research-level chapters have been added, the present book is perhaps best regarded as suited for more advanced readers. I completed the book while my stay at the University of Wisconsin in Madison as a Visiting Professor under the Exchange Program between the Universities of Wisconsin and Helsinki. I gratefully acknowledge this support. I also wish to thank Juhani Saalo and Martti Kuokkanen for comments on the manuscript and for editorial help. Dr Matti Sintonen translated the Finnish ancestor of this book into English, to be used as a partial basis for this work. His translation was supported by a grant from Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden edistamisvarat. Finally, and as usual, I wish to thank Mrs.

• Immanuel Kant
• ontology
• quantum mechanics
• realism
• science
• semantics
• truth

• Department of Philosophy, University of Helsinki, Finland

  Raimo Tuomela

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