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Table of contents (13 chapters)
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Front Matter
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General Introduction: Epistemological Positions
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Empirical Progress
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Front Matter
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Basic Truth Approximation
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Front Matter
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Refined Truth Approximation
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
The instrumentalist methodology, used in the separate, comparative evaluation of theories in terms of their successes and problems (hence, even if already falsified), provides in theory and practice the straight road to short-term empirical progress in science ( à la Laudan). It is also argued that such progress is also functional for all kinds of truth approximation: observational, referential, and theoretical. This sheds new light on the long-term dynamics of science and hence on the relation between the main epistemological positions, viz., instrumentalism (Toulmin, Laudan), constructive empiricism (Van Fraassen), referential realism (Hacking, Cartwright), and theory realism of a non-essentialist nature (constructive realism à la Popper).
Readership: Open minded philosophers and scientists. The book explains and justifies the scientist's intuition that the debate among philosophers about instrumentalism and realism has almost no practical consequences.
Authors and Affiliations
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University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
Theo A. F. Kuipers
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: From Instrumentalism to Constructive Realism
Book Subtitle: On Some Relations between Confirmation, Empirical Progress, and Truth Approximation
Authors: Theo A. F. Kuipers
Series Title: Synthese Library
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1618-5
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
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eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2000
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-7923-6086-5Published: 29 February 2000
Softcover ISBN: 978-90-481-5369-5Published: 04 December 2010
eBook ISBN: 978-94-017-1618-5Published: 18 April 2013
Series ISSN: 0166-6991
Series E-ISSN: 2542-8292
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 372
Topics: Philosophy of Science, Epistemology, Modern Philosophy, Logic