Quasi-realism: combining quasi-truth and scientific realism

• Grant number: 21/11381-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: March 01, 2022
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Epistemology
• Principal Investigator: Itala Maria Loffredo D'Ottaviano
• Grantee: Raoni Wohnrath Arroyo
• Host Institution: Centro de Lógica, Epistemologia e História da Ciência (CLE). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/15992-8 - Partial structures and ontic structural realism: from happy allies to strange bedfellows, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

Scientific realism says that scientific theories describe the world in an approximately true way. In general, this thesis is committed to the alethic monism (there is only one truth). This becomes a problem if we take real cases of underdetermination of theory by data, as in quantum mechanics. The problem is to specify how we can be realist with only one among several alternatives, if assuming the uniqueness of the truth. If we change the theory of truth to quasi-truth, we have a different scientific realism: quasi-realism --- in which apparently we don't have to choose among incompatible alternatives as long as they are empirically adequate. The present research project investigates the possible philosophical consequences for the realism-anti-realism debate when this new perspective enters the scene. On the one hand, quasi-realism can favor structural realism, pointing to the close relationship between partial structures and quasi-truth. On the other hand, it can end up undermining the motivations of scientific realism --- depending on the conception of how minimal scientific realism can be. In the latter case, quasi-realism becomes useful for the defense of structural empiricism.

Scientific publications

(5)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

ARROYO, RAONI WOHNRATH; BECKER ARENHART, JONAS R.. The epistemic value of metaphysics. SYNTHESE, v. 200, n. 4, p. 22-pg., 2022-08-08. (21/11381-1)

ARROYO, RAONI WOHNRATH; ARENHART, JONAS R. BECKER. Whence Deep Realism for Everettian Quantum Mechanics?. FOUNDATIONS OF PHYSICS, v. 52, n. 6, p. 19-pg., 2022-12-01. (21/11381-1)

ARROYO, RAONI WOHNRATH; SVERSUTTI, WILLIAM DAVIDANS. NOTES ON ERWIN SCHRODINGER'S RATIONAL MYSTICISM. GRIOT-REVISTA DE FILOSOFIA, v. 22, n. 1, p. 12-pg., 2022-02-01. (21/11381-1)

RAONI WOHNRATH ARROYO; JONAS R. BECKER ARENHART. A (META)METAFÍSICA DA CIÊNCIA: O CASO DA MECÂNICA QUÂNTICA NÃO RELATIVISTA. Kriterion, v. 63, n. 152, p. 275-296, 2022-08-29. (21/11381-1)

ARROYO, RAONI WOHNRATH; BECKER ARENHART, JONAS R.. The Powers of Quantum Mechanics: A Metametaphysical Discussion of the "Logos Approach". FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE, v. 28, n. 3, p. 26-pg., 2022-03-15. (21/11381-1)