Contemporary debates in philosophy of science

Speaker: Lina Jansson (Nottingham)

Title: A realist’s guide to handling explanatory fictions

Abstract: Recently, a putative truism about explanation has come under criticism. The putative truism is this: only obtaining facts and existing entities can explain. If the putative truism fails, then it seems like arguments for realism based on explanatory indispensability must fail too. In this talk, I focus on what I take to be the strongest challenge to the putative truism; namely, the explanatory use of fictions. I argue that we can allow that fictions can do indispensable explanatory work without threatening (a strengthened version of) arguments from explanatory indispensability.

Contact

The seminars are organised by the philosophy of science research group. For more information or to find out about future events, please contact Dr Alistair Isaac.

Dr Alistair Isaac

Philosophy of science research group