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Realism’s Unacceptable Explanation

Realism’s Unacceptable Explanation. Kareem Khalifa Department of Philosophy Middlebury College. Overview. Background Unacceptable Explanations Realism’s Unacceptable Explanation. I. Background. NMA Some terminology Frost-Arnold’s Big Picture. I.A. NMA. P. Unacceptable.

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Realism’s Unacceptable Explanation

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  1. Realism’s Unacceptable Explanation Kareem Khalifa Department of Philosophy Middlebury College

  2. Overview • Background • Unacceptable Explanations • Realism’s Unacceptable Explanation

  3. I. Background • NMA • Some terminology • Frost-Arnold’s Big Picture

  4. I.A. NMA P Unacceptable P1. Science is empirically successful. P2. The approximate truth of scientific theories best explains this empirical success.[probably] C. Scientific theories are approximately true (= scientific realism.) Q best explains P --------------[probably] Q

  5. I.B. Some Terminology

  6. I.C. Frost-Arnold’s Argument Key Ideas: • Some kinds of explanations are unacceptable to scientists. • Scientific realism (as propounded in the NMA) is one kind of unacceptable explanation.

  7. II. Unacceptable Explanations • Examples • Objections & Replies

  8. II.A. Example: Dormitive Virtues Why does opium put people to sleep? Because opium possesses a dormitive virtue.

  9. II.A. Example: Entelechies Why do many organisms develop normally even if dismembered at an early stage of development? Because each species has an entelechy

  10. II.A. Example: Platonic Solids Why are there six planets? Because there are five perfect Platonic solids, each encased in a globe nested within another globe corresponding to the next solid.

  11. II.A. Example: Just-So Evolutionary Stories Why does an organism have trait T? Because its ancestors faced selection pressures P that favor T.

  12. II.B. Objections & Replies • Misdiagnosis objection • Ad Hoc objection • Self-Evidencing Objection

  13. III. Realism’s Unacceptable Explanation • Realism makes no new predictions • Realism fails to unify disparate claims

  14. III.A. No Predictions • Conceptual Objection • Historical Objection, v.1 • Historical Objection, v.2

  15. III.B. No Unification • Brute conjunction • Unifying truth • 2nd Order IBE

  16. Recap • The NMA purports to offer a scientific explanation of science’s empirical success. • However, scientific explanations make novel predictions or unify disparate claims. • Frost-Arnold argues that scientific realism does neither. • So, if he’s right, the NMA fails by its own standards.

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