Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-31T23:17:32.105Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Truthlikeness, Translation, and Approximate Causal Explanation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Eric Barnes*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy Southern Methodist University

Abstract

D. Miller's demonstrations of the language dependence of truthlikeness raise a profound problem for the claim that scientific progress is objective. In two recent papers (Barnes 1990, 1991) I argue that the objectivity of progress may be grounded on the claim that the aim of science is not merely truth but knowledge; progress thus construed is objective in an epistemic sense. In this paper I construct a new solution to Miller's problem grounded on the notion of “approximate causal explanation” which allows for linguistically invariant progress outside an epistemic context. I suggest that the notion of “approximate causal explanation” provides the resources for a more robust theory of progress than that provided by the notion of “approximate truth.”

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1995

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 grateful to Douglas Ehring, Geoffrey Gorham, Paul Humphreys and an anonymous Philosophy of Science referee for comments and criticisms. I am grateful to the Denison University Research Fund for research support.

Send reprint requests to the author, Department of Philosophy, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275.

References

Barnes, E. (1990), “The Language Dependence of Accuracy”, Synthese 84: 5495.10.1007/BF00485007CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, E. (1991), “Beyond Verisimilitude: A Linguistically Invariant Basis for Scientific Progress”, Synthese 88: 309339.10.1007/BF00413551CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Girili, T. R. (1978), “Approximative Explanation”, in Asquith, P.D. and Hacking, I. (eds.), PSA 1978., vol. I (East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Assn.), pp. 186196.Google Scholar
Humphreys, P. (1989), The Chances of Explanation. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lehrer, K. and Paxson, T. D. (1969) “Knowledge: Undefeated True Justified Belief”, The Journal of Philosophy 66: 225237.10.2307/2024435CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, D. (1974), “Popper's Qualitative Theory of Verisimilitude”, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 25: 166177.10.1093/bjps/25.2.166CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, D. (1975), “The Accuracy of Predictions”, Synthese 30: 159191.10.1007/BF00485304CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, D. (1976), “Verisimilitude Redeflated”, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 27: 363402.10.1093/bjps/27.4.363CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, D. (1978a), “Distance from the Truth as a True Distance”, in Hintikka, J., Niiniluoto, I., and Saarinen, E. (eds.), Essays on Mathematical and Philosophical Logic. Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 415435. Also printed in (1977), Bulletin of the Section of Logic, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences 6, pp. 1526.Google Scholar
Miller, D. (1978b), “The Distance between Constituents”, Synthese 38: 197212.10.1007/BF00486150CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, D. (1982), “Impartial Truth”, Stochastica VI no. 3, pp. 169186. Also printed in Skala, H. J., Termini, S., and Trillas, E. (eds.), Aspects of Vagueness, 1984. Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 7590.Google Scholar
Miller, D. (1987), “A Critique of Good Reasons”, printed in Agassi, J. and Jarvie, I. C. (eds.), Rationality: The Critical View. Dordrecht: Marinus Nijhoff Publishers.Google Scholar
Niiniluoto, I. (1987), Truthlikeness. Dordrecht: Reidel.10.1007/978-94-009-3739-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oddie, G. (1986), Likeness to Truth. Dordrecht: Reidel.10.1007/978-94-009-4658-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearce, D. (1983), “Truthlikeness and Translation: A Comment on Oddie”, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 34: 380385.10.1093/bjps/34.4.380CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearce, D. and Rantala, V. (1985), “Approximative Explanation is Deductive-Nomological”, Philosophy of Science 52: 126140.10.1086/289226CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Popper, K. (1963), Conjectures and Refutations. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Popper, K. (1972), Objective Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Salmon, W. (1984), Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Tichy, P. (1976), “Verisimilitude Redefined”, The British Journal of the Philosophy of Science 25: 155160.Google Scholar
Tichy, P. (1978), “Verisimilitude Revisited”, Synthese 38: 175196.10.1007/BF00486149CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuomela, R. (1985), Science, Action, and Reality. Dordrecht: Reidel.10.1007/978-94-009-5446-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Urbach, P. (1983), “Intimations of Similarity: The Shaky Basis of Verisimilitude”, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 34: 266275.10.1093/bjps/34.3.266CrossRefGoogle Scholar