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Single Idea 16057

[filed under theme 14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 3. Instrumentalism ]

Full Idea

Instrumentalist views typically attribute utility to the given body of discourse, but deny that it expresses genuine truths.

Gist of Idea

Instrumentalism normally says some discourse is useful, but not genuinely true

Source

Terence Horgan (From Supervenience to Superdupervenience [1993], §8)

Book Ref

-: 'Mind' [-], p.27

A Reaction

To me it is obvious to ask why anything could have a high level of utility (especially in accounts of the external physical world) without being true. Falsehoods may sometimes (though I doubt it) be handy in human life, but useful in chemistry…?

The 14 ideas with the same theme [scientific truth is just what works in our theories]:

18982 Pragmatism says all theories are instrumental - that is, mental modes of adaptation to reality [James]
18985 True thoughts are just valuable instruments of action [James]
7621 Special relativity, unlike general relativity, was operationalist in spirit [Putnam on Einstein]
13940 All linguistic forms in science are merely judged by their efficiency as instruments [Carnap]
17665 The 'Tractatus' is instrumentalist about laws of nature [Wittgenstein, by Armstrong]
17658 Users of digital thermometers recognise no temperatures in the gaps [Goodman]
4713 For Quine, theories are instruments used to make predictions about observations [Quine, by O'Grady]
13067 For the instrumentalists there are no scientific explanations [Salmon]
14204 Naïve operationalism would have meanings change every time the tests change [Putnam]
16057 Instrumentalism normally says some discourse is useful, but not genuinely true [Horgan,T]
17704 Operationalism defines concepts by our ways of measuring them [Mares]
6778 Instrumentalists regard theories as tools for prediction, with truth being irrelevant [Bird]
22197 Theories aren't just for organising present experience if they concern the past or future [Gorham]
22196 For most scientists their concepts are not just useful, but are meant to be true and accurate [Gorham]