Realism and Scientific Instrumentation

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There has been a long and as yet unresolved debate between realism and instrumentalism in the philosophy of science. Realists of various stripes want to argue that the theories of science are either true or are becoming closer and closer approximations to the truth about how the world works. Realists, for example, would argue that quarks really exist. Instrumentalists (anti-realists) argue that it is impossible to know whether our theories are true. Rather, they argue, the only valid point in our study of science is to see if the theories work, i.e. whether they make correct predictions. They would argue that it is impossible to know whether quarks exist, but they do serve as a good "instrument" for predicting what will happen in certain experiments. Under this grant, Dr. Brown is seeking to develop and defend a new version of scientific realism that he calls "weak realism." Weak realism can be summarized in two theses: (1) One aim of science is the development of theories that provide true descriptions of features of the world; (2) Because of the growing variety and sophistication of scientific instrumentation, our ability to pursue this goal has been increasing. Weak realism stands in contrast to those antirealist views which deny that the pursuit of truth is a legitimate scientific aim. Weak realism also stands in contrast to other extant versions of scientific realism since weak realism does not require that any current scientific theories be true or approximately true, or that the entities postulated in these theories exist. Still, the view that Dr. Brown calls "weak realism" is a considerably stronger form of realism than others currently under debate. What is especially important about this approach, in contrast to earlier efforts, is the emphasis on the role of increasingly sophisticated instrumentation in the argumentative route to realism. Dr. Brown will carefully examine in a way that philosophers of science have not previous done the role of this highly complex instrumentation in the development of contemporary scientific theories.