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Full Idea
Indeterminacy arguments aim to show that if there is any way to make a theory true, then there are many ways to do so.
Gist of Idea
Indeterminacy arguments say if a theory can be made true, it has multiple versions
Source
Tim Button (The Limits of Reason [2013], 02.1)
Book Ref
Button,Tim: 'The Limits of Realism' [OUP 2013], p.14
A Reaction
Button says the simplest indeterminacy argument is Putnam's Permutation Argument - that you can shuffle the objects in a formal model, without affecting truth. But do we belief that metaphysics can be settled in this sort of way?
| 18692 | Realists believe in independent objects, correspondence, and fallibility of all theories [Button] |
| 18693 | Indeterminacy arguments say if a theory can be made true, it has multiple versions [Button] |
| 18694 | Permutation Theorem: any theory with a decent model has lots of models [Button] |
| 18695 | An ideal theory can't be wholly false, because its consistency implies a true model [Button] |
| 18696 | The vagueness of truthmaker claims makes it easier to run anti-realist arguments [Button] |
| 18697 | A sentence's truth conditions are all the situations where it would be true [Button] |
| 18698 | Predictions give the 'content' of theories, which can then be 'equivalent' or 'adequate' [Button] |
| 18700 | Cartesian scepticism doubts what is true; Kantian scepticism doubts that it is sayable [Button] |
| 18701 | The coherence theory says truth is coherence of thoughts, and not about objects [Button] |