Expanding the Empirical Realm: Constructive Empiricism and Augmented Observation

In Michael Frauchiger (ed.), Themes from van Fraassen (Lauener Library of Analytical Philosophy). De Gruyter (forthcoming)
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Abstract

Manifestationalism holds that science aims only to give us theories that are correct about what has been observed thus far. Several philosophers, including Bas van Fraassen, have argued that manifestationalism cannot make sense of the scientific impetus to make new observations, since such observations only risk turning manifestationally adequate theories into inadequate ones. This paper argues that a strikingly similar objection applies to van Fraassen’s own constructive empiricism, the view that science aims only to find theories that are empirically adequate. Roughly, the objection is that constructive empiricism cannot make sense of the scientific impetus to expand the limits of what can be observed, since such expansions only risk turning empirically adequate theories into inadequate ones.

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Finnur Dellsén
University of Iceland

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References found in this work

The extended mind.Andy Clark & David J. Chalmers - 1998 - Analysis 58 (1):7-19.
The scientific image.C. Van Fraassen Bas - 1980 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Constructive Empiricism Now.Bas C. van Fraassen - 2001 - Philosophical Studies 106 (1-2):151-170.
What is constructive empiricism?Gideon Rosen - 1994 - Philosophical Studies 74 (2):143 - 178.

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