Getting to Reality Through Perception: Peirce and Scientific Realism
Keywords:
Realism, Science, Perception, Judgment, Pragmatism, Synechism.Abstract
This paper explores the capacity of Peirce’s perceptual and realist theories to solve some of scientific realism’s main challenges. Although I will suggest that the problem of the underdetermination of scientific theories might not admit a Peircean solution (DE REGT,1999), I will contend that Peirce can provide innovative support for scientific realism by addressing some of its fundamental issues. My main hypothesis is that Peirce’s perceptual theory—and, particularly Aaron Wilson’s interpretation of this theory (WILSON, 2012)—can help us shed important light on the following questions: (i) how can we account for a mind-independent reality? (ii) how can we explain the success of science? and (iii) how can we account for the knowledge of unobservable entities? I will argue that Peirce offers insightful contributions to (i) and (ii), while only producing a weak argument for (iii).Metrics
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Published
2016-12-27
How to Cite
Dostie Proulx, P.-L. (2016). Getting to Reality Through Perception: Peirce and Scientific Realism. Cognitio: Revista De Filosofia, 17(1), 55–72. Retrieved from https://revistas.pucsp.br/index.php/cognitiofilosofia/article/view/30213
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Section
Papers on Pragmatism