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Ideas of Bas C. van Fraassen, by Text

[American, b.1941, Professor at Princeton University.]

1980 The Scientific Image
p.131 An explanation is just descriptive information answering a particular question [Salmon]
p.143 To 'accept' a theory is not to believe it, but to believe it empirically adequate [Bird]
p.145 Why should the true explanation be one of the few we have actually thought of? [Bird]
p.12 p.95 To accept a scientific theory, we only need to believe that it is empirically adequate
p.202 p.99 Empiricists deny what is unobservable, and reject objective modality
2002 The Empirical Stance
1.5 p.14 Inference to best explanation contains all sorts of hidden values
1.5 p.14 We accept many scientific theories without endorsing them as true
1.5 p.16 We may end up with a huge theory of carefully constructed falsehoods
1.5 p.17 Philosophy is a value- and attitude-driven enterprise
1.5 p.17 Is it likely that a successful, coherent, explanatory ontological hypothesis is true?
1.6 p.18 Analytic philosophy has an exceptional arsenal of critical tools