FILE SELECTED // FILE 00
Scientific Realism
“Do our best theories describe real entities, or merely organize observations successfully?”
01 / SUMMARY
In short
Scientific realism broadly holds that mature, successful theories can approximately describe observable and unobservable aspects of a mind-independent world. Many versions and objections exist.
03 / SCENE
In the wild
A realist typically treats electrons as real entities, not merely useful pieces of a predictive calculation.
04 / LIMIT
The limit
Realism does not require believing every current theory is literally true or final.
FINAL NOTE
What remains
Separate accepting predictive success from accepting the ontology a theory proposes.