Structural realism

a neo-Kantian perspective

Michela Massimi

pp. 1-23

in: Alisa Bokulich, Peter Bokulich (eds), Scientific structuralism, Berlin, Springer, 2011

Abstract

Structural realism was born in the attempt to reach a compromise between a realist argument and an antirealist one, namely the "no miracle" ­argument and the "pessimistic meta-induction", respectively. According to the "no miracle" argument, scientific realism is the only philosophy that does not make the success of science a miracle. The only way of explaining why science is so ­successful in making predictions that most of the time turn out to be verified, is to believe that theoretical terms refer, that theories in mature science are true or at least approximately true, and that the same term refers to the same thing even if it occurs in different theories. It is the referential nature of scientific theories that explains the success of science.

Cited authors

Kant Immanuel