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SUMMARY:More models\, more problems? - Rune Nyrup (Department of History a
 nd Philosophy of Science)
DTSTART:20130123T170000Z
DTEND:20130123T180000Z
UID:TALK42500@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Vashka dos Remedios
DESCRIPTION:Scientific Perspectivism is a position in the philosophy of sc
 ience recently developed by Ronald Giere. Its central thesis is that the s
 trongest claim one can legitimately make on the basis of a successful\nsci
 entific model concerns how the world looks from the theoretical perspectiv
 e of that model.\n\nThis is meant to provide a middle position between the
  excesses of constructivism and relativism\, on the one hand\, and the kin
 d of realism which wants to draw strong metaphysical conclusions from scie
 nce\, on the\nother. He is thus another attempt in the long line of philos
 ophers trying to banish metaphysics from science. He does this by distingu
 ishing between\nspecific claims about the similarity of models to part of 
 the world\, which are truth-evaluate but always perspective-relative\, and
  merely pragmatic\ncommitments to using particular perspectives.\n\nIn thi
 s essay I argue that Giere's account fails to fulfil this ambition of keep
 ing metaphysics out of science. I argue that the pragmatist motivation he 
 gives for his view undermines the central distinction between representati
 onal models and merely pragmatic commitments to perspectives.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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