N-rays and the semantic view of scientific progress

Darrell Patrick ROWBOTTOM

doi:10.1016/j.shpsa.2008.03.010

N-rays and the semantic view of scientific progress

Darrell Patrick ROWBOTTOM

Research output: Journal Publications › Journal Article (refereed) › peer-review

44 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper challenges a recent argument of Bird’s, which involves imagining that Réné Blondlot’s belief in N-rays was true, in favour of the view that scientific progress should be understood in terms of knowledge rather than truth. By considering several variants of Bird’s thought-experiment, it shows that the semantic account of progress cannot be so easily vanquished. A key possibility is that justification is only instrumental in, and not partly constitutive of, progress.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	277-278
Number of pages	2
Journal	Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A
Volume	39
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2008.03.010
Publication status	Published - 1 Jun 2008
Externally published	Yes

Funding

My work on this paper was supported by the John Templeton Foundation, as part of the project ‘Why “Why?”—Methodological and Philosophical Issues at the Physics–Biology Interface’.

Keywords

Alexander Bird
Goal of inquiry
Scientific progress
Value problem

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10.1016/j.shpsa.2008.03.010

Cite this

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KW - Value problem

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N-rays and the semantic view of scientific progress

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

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