Chakravartty: Metaphilosophy, Philosophy of Science and Semirealism

  • Óscar L. Gonzalez-Castán
    Departamento de Lógica y Filosofía Teórica, Facultad de Filosofía, Universidad Complutense de Madrid oscar.gonzalez[at]filos.ucm.es

Abstract

Chakravartty’s philosophy of science faces an internal tension when he deals with problems related with scientific realism and, more generally, with the ontology and epistemology of science. On the one hand, he develops a “metaphilosophical” line of thought to establish what the epistemic status of the most relevant theories or stances in the philosophy of science is. On the other hand, there is an “analytic” vein in that he argues against empiricism and other versions of scientific realism to defend his semirealism. I shall claim that this twofold approximation to scientific realism faces various problems. In the first place, there are internal problems with Chakravartty’s semirealism because it requires an untenable a prioricriterion to discern what parts of our scientific theories are liable to realistic ontological commitments and what parts are not. Secondly, there are structural problems because his metaphilosophy shifts all theories in the philosophy of science, including his semirealism, to the realm of a voluntary choice of personal taste.
  • Referencias
  • Cómo citar
  • Del mismo autor
  • Métricas
Cordero, Alberto (2013a). Theory-Parts for Scientific Realists. En Vassilios Karakostas y Dennis Dieks (Eds.), EPSA 11. Perspectives and Foundational Problems in Philosophy of Science. The European Philosophy of Science Association. Proceedings v. 2 (pp. 153-165), Suiza: Springer International Publishing.

Cordero, Alberto (2013b). Naturalism and Scientific Realism. En José Luis Galparsoro y Alberto Cordero (Eds.). Reflections on Naturalism (pp. 61-84). Boston: Sense Publishers

Chakravartty, Anjan (2007). A Metaphysics for Scientific Realism. Knowing the Unobservable. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chakravartty, Anjan (2017). Scientific Ontology. Integrating Naturalized Metaphysics and Voluntarists Epistemology. New York: Oxford University Press.

Dewey, John (1986/1938), Logic: The Theory of Inquiry. The Later Works, 1925-1953. Volume 12: 1938. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press.

Kitcher, Philip (1993). The Advancement of Science. Science without Legend, Objectivity without Illusions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ladyman, James (2009, 27 de junio). A Metaphysics for Scientific Realism. Knowing the Unobservable. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, obtenido en https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/a-metaphysics-for-scientific-realism-knowing-the-unobservable/

Laudan, Larry (1981), A Confutation of Scientific Realism. Philosophy of Science, 48-1, 19-49.

Psillos, Stathis (1999). Scientific Realism: How Science Tracks Truth. London: Routledge.

Rorty, Richard (2002), The Empirical Stance. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, obtenido en https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/the-empirical-stance/

Sellars, Wilfried (1963). Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man. En Science, Perception and Reality (pp. 1-40). Londres: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Van Fraassen, Bas C. (2002). The Empirical Stance. Yale: Yale University Press

Worrall, John (2008). Theory-Change in Science. En Stathis Psillos y Martin Curd (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science (pp. 281-291). Oxford: Routledge.
Gonzalez-Castán, Óscar L. (2018). Chakravartty: Metaphilosophy, Philosophy of Science and Semirealism. ArtefaCToS. Revista De Estudios Sobre La Ciencia Y La tecnología, 7(2), 59–82. https://doi.org/10.14201/art2018725982

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
+