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Duhem, Quine and Grünbaum on Falsification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Gary Wedeking*
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia

Abstract

In Chapter 4 of [2] Grünbaum sets out to refute Einstein's philosophy of physical geometry. The latter's theory is seen as lying within the tradition of “anti-empiricist conventionalism” of Duhem and Quine as opposed to the “qualified empiricism” of Poincaré, Carnap and Reichenbach. Consequently Grünbaum sets the stage for his critique of Einstein by discussing certain of the views of these other thinkers. But in these preliminary discussions the various theses are confused and misrepresented in such a way as to make it almost impossible to evaluate Grünbaum's final treatment of Einstein's thesis. For this reason I will deal only with those parts of this chapter in which the roots of Grünbaum's confusion are to be found. This will involve analyses of two theories which are not clearly distinguished by Grünbaum. The first is Duhem's denial of the “crucial experiment” in physics; the second is Quine's version of “pragmatism.”

Type
A Panel Discussion of Grünbaum's Philosophy of Science
Copyright
Copyright © 1969 by The Philosophy of Science Association

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References

[1] Duhem, P., The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory (trans. by Philip P. Wienerm), Atheneum, New York, 1962.Google Scholar
[2] Grünbaum, A., Philosophical Problems of Space and Time, Alfred Knopf, New York, 1963.Google Scholar
[3] Popper, Karl R., The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Science Editions, New York, 1961.Google Scholar
[4] Quine, W. V. O., “Two Dogmas of Empiricism,” in From a Logical Point of View, Harper & Row, New York, 1963, pp. 2046.Google Scholar