A success-to-truth inference has always been at the heart of scientific realist positions. But
all attempts to articulate the inference have met with very significant challenges. This paper …

Over the last two decades, the debate over scientific realism has been dominated by two
arguments that pull in contrary directions: the 'no miracle'argument and the 'pessimistic …

Scientific realists endeavor to secure inferences from empirical success to approximate truth
by arguing that, despite the demise of empirically successful theories, the parts of those …

A general insight of 20th‐century philosophy of science is that the acceptance of a scientific
theory is grounded, not merely on a theory's relation to data, but on its status as having no …

In this essay I consider the historical challenges to scientific realist positions. A statement of
'Contemporary Selective Scientific Realism'(CSSR) is sketched, so as to narrow down the …

What is scientific realism? The literature provides a bewildering variety of answers. This
article starts by addressing this question. It goes on to discuss the most influential arguments …

Scientific realism is a doctrine that was both in and out of fashion several times during the
twentieth century. I begin by noting three presuppositions of a succinct characterization of …

The most influential arguments for scientific realism remain centrally concerned with an
inference from scientific success to the approximate truth of successful theories. Recently …

Pivotal to epistemic scientific realism is the no-miracles argument (NMA): the success of our
scientific theories would be miraculous were they not at least approximately true. It is this …

Scientific Realism and Historical Evidence: Shortcomings of the Current State of Debate |
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