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Single Idea 19007

[filed under theme 14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 2. Aim of Science ]

Full Idea

A physical theory need not be true to be good, Field has argued, and I agree. All we ask of it truth-wise is that its physical implications should be true, or, in my version, that it should be true about the physical.

Gist of Idea

A theory need not be true to be good; it should just be true about its physical aspects

Source

Stephen Yablo (Aboutness [2014], 12.5)

Book Ref

Yablo,Stephen: 'Aboutness' [Princeton 2014], p.204

A Reaction

Yablo is, of course, writing a book here about the concept of 'about'. This seems persuasive. The internal terminology of the theory isn't committed to anything - it is only at its physical periphery (Quine) that the ontology matters.

The 14 ideas from 'Aboutness'

18993 If sentences point to different evidence, they must have different subject-matter [Yablo]
18992 Sentence-meaning is the truth-conditions - plus factors responsible for them [Yablo]
18994 The content of an assertion can be quite different from compositional content [Yablo]
18996 A statement S is 'partly true' if it has some wholly true parts [Yablo]
18997 Truth-conditions as subject-matter has problems of relevance, short cut, and reversal [Yablo]
18999 y is only a proper part of x if there is a z which 'makes up the difference' between them [Yablo]
18998 Parthood lacks the restriction of kind which most relations have [Yablo]
19001 'Pegasus doesn't exist' is false without Pegasus, yet the absence of Pegasus is its truthmaker [Yablo]
19002 A nominalist can assert statements about mathematical objects, as being partly true [Yablo]
19003 Most people say nonblack nonravens do confirm 'all ravens are black', but only a tiny bit [Yablo]
19004 Gettier says you don't know if you are confused about how it is true [Yablo]
19005 Not-A is too strong to just erase an improper assertion, because it actually reverses A [Yablo]
19006 An 'enthymeme' is an argument with an indispensable unstated assumption [Yablo]
19007 A theory need not be true to be good; it should just be true about its physical aspects [Yablo]