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Single Idea 22197

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

Full Idea

The strangeness of interpreting theories as mere tools for organising present experience is brought out clearly in sciences like cosmology and paleontology, which largely concern events in the remote past or future.

Gist of Idea

Theories aren't just for organising present experience if they concern the past or future

Source

Geoffrey Gorham (Philosophy of Science [2009], 4)

Book Ref

Gorham,Geoffrey: 'Philosophy of Science' [One World 2009], p.103

A Reaction

Not conclusive. An anti-realist has to interpret those sciences in terms of the current observations that are available.

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]