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The Relativity of Theory

Key Positions and Arguments in the Contemporary Scientific Realism/Antirealism Debate

  • Book
  • © 2020

Overview

Authors:
  1. Moti Mizrahi

    1. College of Psychology and Liberal Arts, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, USA

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  • Introduces the key arguments and positions in the scientific realism/antirealism debate
  • Examines the key arguments for and against scientific realism in a rigorous manner
  • Develops a position that provides a middle-ground between scientific realism and antirealism

Part of the book series: Synthese Library (SYLI, volume 431)

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-viii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Moti Mizrahi
    Pages 1-17

  3. Realism Versus Antirealism in Contemporary Philosophy of Science

    • Moti Mizrahi
    Pages 19-34

  4. Key Positions in the Contemporary Scientific Realism/Antirealism Debate

    • Moti Mizrahi
    Pages 35-49

  5. Key Arguments for Scientific Realism

    • Moti Mizrahi
    Pages 51-77

  6. Key Arguments Against Scientific Realism

    • Moti Mizrahi
    Pages 79-108

  7. Relative Realism: The Best of Both Worlds

    • Moti Mizrahi
    Pages 109-162

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 163-171
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Keywords

About this book

This book offers a close and rigorous examination of the arguments for and against scientific realism and introduces key positions in the scientific realism/antirealism debate, which is one of the central debates in contemporary philosophy of science. On the one hand, scientific realists argue that we have good reasons to believe that our best scientific theories are approximately true because, if they were not even approximately true, they would not be able to explain and predict natural phenomena with such impressive accuracy. On the other hand, antirealists argue that the success of science does not warrant belief in the approximate truth of our best scientific theories. This is because the history of science is a graveyard of theories that were once successful but were later discarded. The author eventually settles on a middle-ground position between scientific realism and antirealism called “relative realism”.

Authors and Affiliations

  • College of Psychology and Liberal Arts, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, USA

    Moti Mizrahi

About the author

Moti Mizrahi is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Florida Institute of Technology. He is the editor of The Kuhnian Image of Science: Time for a Decisive Transformation? (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018). He is an Associate and Book Reviews Editor of Philosophia (Springer). He has published extensively on the philosophy of science, the scientific realism/antirealism debate, the epistemology of philosophy, and argumentation. His work has appeared in journals such as Argumentation, Erkenntnis, Philosophical Studies, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, and Synthese.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Relativity of Theory

  • Book Subtitle: Key Positions and Arguments in the Contemporary Scientific Realism/Antirealism Debate

  • Authors: Moti Mizrahi

  • Series Title: Synthese Library

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58047-6

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-58046-9Published: 30 September 2020

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-58049-0Published: 01 October 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-58047-6Published: 29 September 2020

  • Series ISSN: 0166-6991

  • Series E-ISSN: 2542-8292

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VIII, 171

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Philosophy of Science, History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics

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