What does it mean to say that the answer to some particular question is underdetermined by available evidence?
At the heart of the underdetermination of scientific theory by evidence is the simple idea that the evidence available to us at a given time may be insufficient to determine what beliefs we should hold in response to it.
What is the Duhem hypothesis?
The Duhem-Quine Thesis is the claim that it is impossible to test a scientific hypothesis in isolation because any empirical test requires assuming the truth of one or more auxiliary hypotheses.
What is underdetermination logic?
Underdetermination says that all evidence necessarily underdetermines any scientific theory. Underdetermination exists when available evidence is insufficient to identify which belief one should hold about that evidence.
What is the difference between local and global underdetermination?
Both claims are generically labeled “Duhem–Quine underdetermination.” The global version says that any given set of data can always be represented by different, conceptually incompatible accounts; the local variant suggests that arbitrary hypotheses can be maintained in the face of arbitrary evidence if one is prepared …
What is the Underdetermination argument against scientific realism?
The argument form the empirical underdetermination of theories against scientific realism is that in principle any body of empirical data, no matter how large, is compatible with an infinite number of possible incompatible theories.
What is the meaning of underdetermined?
Filters. Having not enough constraints to specify a unique solution. adjective.
What is the Underdetermination argument?
Underdetermination is a thesis explaining that for any scientifically based theory there will always be at least one rival theory that is also supported by the evidence given, and that that theory can also be logically maintained in the face of any new evidence.
What is holism about testability?
“Holism,” is the view that what is in fact “tested” by observational evidence (if anything is) are not individual laws or theories, but rather large constellations of belief which include not only the one “theory” that is allegedly undergoing empirical “testing” but also a whole array of “auxiliary hypotheses” which …
What is a native realist?
In social psychology, naïve realism is the human tendency to believe that we see the world around us objectively, and that people who disagree with us must be uninformed, irrational, or biased.
What is wrong with scientific realism?
Another argument against scientific realism, deriving from the underdetermination problem, is not so historically motivated as these others. It claims that observational data can in principle be explained by multiple theories that are mutually incompatible.
What is the philosophical question of scientific realism?
Scientific realism is a positive epistemic attitude toward the content of our best theories and models, recommending belief in both observable and unobservable aspects of the world described by the sciences.
What is undetermined number?
: not definitely or authoritatively decided, settled, or identified : not determined an undetermined boundary an undetermined species at an as yet undetermined time an undetermined number of people.