Structural realism without metaphysics: Notes on Carnap's measured pragmatic structural realism

Date

2015-01-01

Author

Davoody Benı, Majıd

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

123
views

0
downloads

Carnap's reinvention of the Ramsey-sentence approach to scientific theories has been at the center of a new debate in recent years. Following Grover Maxwell, Psillos (2000a) argued that Carnap's re-invention of the Ramsey-sentence had failed to lead to the desired neutral stance in the realism-instrumentalism debate, and ended, instead, to a form of structural realism which happened to be liable to Newman's objection to Russell's version of structural realism. The objection held that without putting suitable restrictions on the range of the variables of the Ramseysentence, a Ramsey-sentence approach to theories renders trivial and a priori true all ontological commitments to unobservable entities issued by scientific theories. By arguing that Carnap achieved the neutral stance, Friedman (2011) counter Psillos claim. He denied that any form of realism could be attributed to Carnap. In this paper, I provide a middle ground, where an unorthodox form of structural realism could be attributed to Carnap. I highlight parts of Carnap's work which deal with the problem of designation of abstract terms and the relation of the language to the facts of the matter (in Carnap 1934; 1950; 1966), to argue that it was Carnap's view about the practical methodological considerations, being at work in the construction (or choice) of the linguistic systems, which led him to the unorthodox form of structural realism. I also claim that the same practical considerations constitute the nub of a viable Carnapian answer to Newman's objection.

URI

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=84949452143&origin=inward
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/93657

Journal

Organon F

Collections

Department of Philosophy, Article

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Structural realist account of the self Davoody Benı, Majıd (2016-12-01) In this paper, inspired by the late twentieth century developments in philosophy of science (ontic structural realism), I propose an ontological scheme to accommodate the scientifically-informed anti-substantivalist views of the self. I call the position structural realist theory of the self (SRS for short). More specifically, I argue that SRS provides a middle ground for bringing a metaphysical reconciliation between the two recurring, and apparently competing forms of such anti-substantivalist views, i.e....
Scientific collaborations as complex adaptive systems Aydınoğlu, Arsev Umur (2010-12-31) This paper suggests that complexity theory can provide tools and insights into scientific collaborations. By using six propositions, which were established by observing the qualitative properties of complex systems, examples of how the most important features of complex adaptive systems exist in scientific collaborations are provided. (1) Scientific collaborations are potentially complex adaptive systems because of the many counteracting forces in them. (2) A basic protocol in the formation of a scientific ...
Structural Realism, Metaphysical Unification, and the Ontology and Epistemology of Patterns Davoody Benı, Majıd (2017-01-01) Ladyman and Ross's account of the metaphysical component of ontic structural realism was associated with a unificationist view of the connection between fundamental physics and special sciences. The aim of the present article is to assess the sense of unification that is at issue in Ladyman and Ross's definition of metaphysics. Given the ontic core of Ladyman and Ross's version of structural realism, it should be assumed that the unifying endeavour is worthwhile only if the connective links that underpin un...
Scientific realism debate in the philosophy of science Özer, Hüsnü; Bağçe, Samet; Department of Philosophy (2010) The primary concern of this piece of work is to reconsider scientific realism debate in the philosophy of science. Accordingly, the overall aim is to come up with the clues of a viable scientific realist attitude in the face of anti-realist interpretations of scientific theories. To accomplish this aim, I make use of two modified versions of scientific realism, that is, ‘epistemic structural realism’ and ‘entity realism’. Epistemic structural realism is a realist position of which proponents claim that the ...
New directions in the direction of time Bağcı, Gökhan Barış; Grünberg, Teo; Department of Philosophy (2006) This thesis analyzes the direction of time problem in the framework of philosophy of science. The radiation arrow, Newtonian arrow, thermodynamic arrow and quantum mechanical arrow have been studied in detail. The importance of the structure of space-time concerning direction of time is emphasized.

Citation Formats

M. Davoody Benı, “Structural realism without metaphysics: Notes on Carnap’s measured pragmatic structural realism,” Organon F, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 302–324, 2015, Accessed: 00, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=84949452143&origin=inward.