Instrumentalism: A Third Option

Abstract

Most Christian scientists currently appear to favor a "realist" view of scientific theories. Apparent conflicts between science and Scripture are then generally resolved by modifying either our reading of Scripture or the offending scientific theories. In this paper we examine a third possibility: the adoption of an instrumentalist approach to scientific theories. This alternative enables one to make use of the practical results of scientific theories while at the same time withholding any commitment as to the validity of their epistemological content.

Categories

Keywords

Reprint years

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,592

External links

  • This entry has no external links. Add one.
Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

  • Only published works are available at libraries.

My notes

Similar books and articles

Instrumentalism Revisited.Elliott Sober - 2001 - The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 10 (91):59-68.
Studies in scientific realism.Stathis Psillos - 2001 - Foundations of Chemistry 3 (1):79-86.
Conditions on the Use of the One-dimensional Heat Equation.Chris Pincock - unknown
The incompatibility of naturalism and scientific realism.Robert Koons - 2000 - In William Lane Craig & James Porter Moreland (eds.), Naturalism: A Critical Analysis. Routledge. pp. 49--63.
The Medawar lecture 2004: The truth about science.Peter Lipton - 2005 - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 360:1259-1269.
Are realism and instrumentalism methodologically indifferent?Robin Findlay Hendry - 2001 - Proceedings of the Philosophy of Science Association 2001 (3):S25-.
Instrumentalism.Kyle Stanford - unknown
Scientific realism and mathematical nominalism: A marriage made in hell.Mark Colyvan - 2006 - In Colin Cheyne (ed.), Rationality and Reality. Conversations with Alan Musgrave. Netherlands: Springer. pp. 225-237. Translated by John Worrall.
The Paradox of Instrumentalism.David Papineau - 1986 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1986:269-276.
Was Hume a Humean?Elijah Millgram - 1995 - Hume Studies 21 (1):75-94.
Prospects for a naturalization of practical reason: Humean instrumentalism and the normative authority of desire.Robert Audi - 2002 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 10 (3):235 – 263.
How to be a scientific realist: A proposal to empiricists.Stathis Psillos - unknown
Ends.Mark LeBar - 2004 - Social Theory and Practice 30 (4):507-533.
Structuralism and reference.Daniel Rothschild - manuscript

Analytics

Added to PP
2010-12-22

Downloads
26 (#606,277)

6 months
1 (#1,469,469)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references