Keeping things in perspective [Book Review]

Philosophical Studies 150 (3):439 - 447 (2010)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Scientific realism holds that scientific representations are utterly objective. They describe the way the world is, independent of any point of view. In Scientific Representation, van Fraassen argues otherwise. If science is to afford an understanding of nature, it must be grounded in evidence. Since evidence is perspectivai, science cannot vindicate its claims using only utterly objective representations. For science to do its epistemic job, it must involve perspectivai representations. I explicate this argument and show its power

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 92,283

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Scientific perspectivism.Ronald N. Giere - 2006 - Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Junk Representations.Lawrence A. Shapiro - 1997 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 48 (3):345-361.
Scientific realism: An elaboration and a defence.Howard Sankey - 2001 - Theoria A Journal of Social and Political Theory 98 (98):35-54.
Scientific Reasoning or Damage Control: Alternative Proposals for Reasoning with Inconsistent Representations of the World.Joel M. Smith - 1988 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1988:241 - 248.

Analytics

Added to PP
2010-04-03

Downloads
687 (#24,649)

6 months
17 (#151,974)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Catherine Elgin
Harvard University

References found in this work

How the laws of physics lie.Nancy Cartwright - 1983 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The scientific image.C. Van Fraassen Bas - 1980 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The Scientific Image.William Demopoulos & Bas C. van Fraassen - 1982 - Philosophical Review 91 (4):603.
Meaning and the moral sciences.Hilary Putnam - 1978 - Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Scientific Representation: Paradoxes of Perspective.Bas C. Van Fraassen - 2008 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.

View all 14 references / Add more references