Science and Partial Truth: A Unitary Approach to Models and Scientific Reasoning
Newton C. A. da Costa and Steven French
Abstract
In the past thirty years, two fundamental issues have emerged in the philosophy of science. One concerns the appropriate attitude we should take towards scientific theories — whether we should regard them as true or merely empirically adequate, for example. The other concerns the nature of scientific theories and models and how these might best be represented. This book looks at these two issues together by arguing that theories and models should be regarded as partially rather than wholly true. It adopts a framework that sheds new light on issues to do with belief, theory acceptance, and the ... More
Keywords: scientific theory, belief, theory acceptanace, realism-antirealism debate, partial structures
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2003 | Print ISBN-13: 9780195156515 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: February 2006 | DOI:10.1093/019515651X.001.0001 |
