Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-t6hkb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T04:27:30.379Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lawlikeness and the End of Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

C. Z. Elgin
C. Z. Elgin*
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although our theories are not precisely true, scientific realists contend that we should admit their objects into our ontology. One justification—offered by Sellars and Putnam—is that current theories belong to series that converge to ideally adequate theories. I consider the way the commitment to convergence reflects on the interpretation of lawlike claims. I argue that the distinction between lawlike and accidental generalizations depends on our cognitive interests and reflects our commitment to the direction of scientific progress. If the sciences disagree about the lawlikeness of some generalization(s), as an argument of Davidson's suggests, it follows from the interest relatively of lawlikeness that the laws of a science do not determine the essences of their objects. I conclude that this form of scientific realism provides no metaphysical support for essentialism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , March 1980 , pp. 56 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

I am indebted to Jonathon Adler, Richard Burian, Vicki Choy Levine, Hilary Putnam, and the referee for Philosophy of Science for helpful comments concerning earlier versions of this paper.

References

Davidson, D. (1970), ‘Mental Events’ Experience and Theory, Foster, L. and Swanson, J. W. (eds.), Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 79–101.Google Scholar
Goodman, N. (1973), Fact, Fiction and Forecast. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Kripke, S. (1972), ‘Naming and Necessity,‘ Semantics of Natural Language, Davidson, D. and Harman, G. (eds.), Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 253–355, 763–769.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levi, I. (1967), Gambling With Truth. Cambridge, Mass.: The M.I.T. Press.Google Scholar
Putnam, H. (1975), ‘The Meaning of “Meaning,” ‘ Language, Mind and Knowledge. Gunderson, K. (ed.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 131–193.Google Scholar
Putnam, H. (1978), ‘John Locke Lectures,‘ Meaning and the Moral Sciences. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 7–80.Google Scholar
Quine, W. V. (1976), ‘Three Grades of Modal Involvement,‘ The Ways of Paradox and Other Essays. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 158–176.Google Scholar
Sellars, W. (1963), ‘Truth and Correspondence,‘ Science, Perception, and Reality. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 197–224.Google Scholar
Sellars, W. (1968), Science and Metaphysics. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar