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Discussion: Astronomy and Antirealism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Dudley Shapere
Dudley Shapere*
Affiliation:
Wake Forest University
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Abstract

Relying on an analysis of the case of gravitational lensing, Hacking argues for a “modest antirealism” in astronomy. It is shown here that neither his scientific arguments nor his philosophical doctrines imply an antirealist conclusion. An alternative, realistic interpretation of gravitational lensing, and of the nature and history of astronomy more generally, is suggested.

Type
Discussion
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , March 1993 , pp. 134 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1993

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Footnotes

†

I wish to thank J. R. Gott, J. E. Gunn, J. Ostriker, E. Turner, and R. Webster for helpful discussions of gravitational lensing. I am also grateful to the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N. J., for use of its facilities in writing this paper.

‡

Send reprint requests to the author, Wake Forest University, Drawer 7229 Reynolda Station, Winston-Salem, NC 27109, USA.

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