Northcott, Robert (2013) Verisimilitude: a causal approach. Synthese 190 (9), pp. 1471-1488. ISSN 0039-7857.
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Abstract
I present a new definition of verisimilitude, framed in terms of causes. Roughly speaking, according to it a scientific model is approximately true if it captures accurately the strengths of the causes present in any given situation. Against much of the literature, I argue that any satisfactory account of verisimilitude must inevitably restrict its judgments to context-specific models rather than general theories. We may still endorse – and only need – a relativized notion of scientific progress, understood now not as global advance but rather as the mastering of particular problems. This also sheds new light on longstanding difficulties surrounding language-dependence and models committed to false ontologies
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Keyword(s) / Subject(s): | Verisimilitude, Approximate truth, Causal strength, Causation, Scientific progress, Language dependence, Scientific realism |
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies |
| Depositing User: | Robert Northcott |
| Date Deposited: | 31 Jul 2012 11:31 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 16:58 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/4994 |
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