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      The other side of the dark side : underdetermination and unconceived alternatives in science

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      Date
      2010-11
      Author
      Sawkins, Corey Edwin
      Type
      Thesis
      Degree Level
      Masters
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      Abstract
      Arguments from underdetermination take two forms, those from global sceptical underdetermination, global scientific underdetermination and local underdetermination. Arguments from global sceptical underdetermination bring into question all knowledge, they develop sceptical scenarios that purport to show that we cannot trust any ‘knowledge’ that we obtain within the world. Arguments from local underdetermination aim to bring into question the nature of our knowledge and are geared against scientific realism. This thesis is an evaluation of the arguments that claim to do the latter, however it shows that these arguments are not arguments from local underdetermination but are from a type of global underdetermination that I call global scientific underdetermination. Based on this evaluation a new argument from local underdetermination is developed that attempts to show that nevertheless local underdetermination is indeed a problem for scientific realism. However, I argue that this argument also fails to undermine scientific realism. Recently Kyle Stanford has reintroduced an historical argument from underdetermination that he calls the argument from unconceived alternatives. Stanford’s argument from unconceived alternatives is an inductive historical argument. It maintains that scientific theories are chosen from a non-exhaustive set of theories; claiming there is always at least one unconceived alternative that would better explain the empirical evidence. Stanford’s new induction attempts to undermine scientific realism by arguing that our most successful theories will eventually be shown to be false. Various arguments against this induction will be considered. It will be shown that traditional scientific realism fails to address the argument from unconceived alternatives and the only form of scientific realism that can overcome this problem is structural realism.
      Degree
      Master of Arts (M.A.)
      Department
      Philosophy
      Program
      Philosophy
      Supervisor
      Hudson, Robert
      Copyright Date
      November 2010
      URI
      http://hdl.handle.net/10388/etd-11292010-145557
      Subject
      Philosophy
      Unconceived Alternatives
      Underdetermination
      Scientific Realism
      Cosmology
      Physics
      Science
      Philosophy of Science
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      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
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