1st Edition
The Instrument of Science Scientific Anti-Realism Revitalised
Science as an Instrument: An Introduction
1. Scientific Progress and the Value of Science
2. The Limits of Scientific Discourse about the Unobservable
3. Unconceived Alternatives and the Contingency of Science’s Content
4. Historical Illuminations: 1885–1930
5. Empirical Understanding
6. Objections and Comparisons
7. The Illusion of Scientific Realism
Appendix: What Is Scientific Realism?
Biography
Darrell P. Rowbottom is Professor of Philosophy at Lingnan University, and serves as Editor in Chief of Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A. He is the author of Popper’s Critical Rationalism: A Philosophical Investigation (Routledge, 2011) and Probability (2015). He also co-edited Intuitions (2014) with Anthony R. Booth. He has published numerous articles in leading journals, including Analysis, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Philosophy of Science, Synthese, and Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (Parts A and C).
"The book is impressive, very readable, and offers an anti-realist position that deserves very careful consideration . . . It will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the realism/anti-realism debate, as well as to those interested in scientific understanding, scientific progress, models and analogies, since it develops interesting new positions on each of these issues." – MIND
"The book is a welcome and timely addition to the literature. It will certainly help the anti-realist cause, as it provides a number of serious challenges to realism . . . It will also be a valuable starting point for others interested in developing a new instrumentalism in philosophy of science." – Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
"The book is impressive given its breadth . . . Rowbottom does succeed in . . . showing that cognitive instrumentalism is at least as plausible as its rivals, as well as managing to articulate new important challenges the realists face. The book contains some important insights and I believe it will play an important role in fuelling the scientific realism debate for years to come." – Metascience
"This accessible and engaging defence of instrumentalism is essential reading for all those interested in the debate between realism and instrumentalism in the philosophy of science." – Jon Williamson, University of Kent, UK
"Analyzing fascinating examples from the history of science, this book builds a compelling and carefully argued case for cognitive instrumentalism: that is, for a philosophy of science that takes seriously what we can understand, and do, with science in the world as we experience it." – Axel Gelfert, Technical University of Berlin, Germany
