The Syntactic Approach as a Framework for Ontic Structural Realism [Spanish]

Main Article Content

Bruno Borge

Abstract

 

Ontic Structural Realism (OSR) states that a realistic reading of scientific theories (especially of modern physics) requires to take structures as ontologically fundamental. Regardless of how this commitment is articulated, OSR proponents agree that the appropriate framework for developing such a position is the semantic approach to theories. I argue that, at least in aspects relevant to the formulation of OSR, the semantic approach is not superior to the syntactic one. I also show that the Received View has the necessary conceptual resources to adequately express the metaphysical commitments of OSR.

 

Article Details

Section

Articles

Author Biography

Bruno Borge, Universidad de Buenos Aires

Doctor en Filosofía por la Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA). Es investigador asistente de la Carreradel Investigador Científico y Tecnológico en el Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET). Se desempeña además como profesor adjunto de Lógica y Metodología de la Ciencia en la Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora, y docente de Filosofía de las Ciencias en la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la UBA. Sus áreas de trabajo son la metafísica científica y la filosofía general de la ciencia.

References

Bell, J. L., y Slomson, A. B. (1974). Models and ultraproducts: An introduction. 3rd ed. Amsterdam, Netherlands: North-Holland.


Borge, B. (2013). ¿Qué es el realismo estructural óntico?: Una aproximación al debate actual sobre el realismo científico. Revista Colombiana de Filosofía de la Ciencia, 13(27), 149-175. doi: 10.1590/0100-6045.2017.v40n2.bb


Borge, B. (2015). Realismo científico hoy: a 40 años de la formulación del Argumento del No-Milagro. Acta Scientiarum. Human and Social Sciences, 37(2), 221-233. doi: 10.4025/actascihumansoc.v37i2.26933


Borge, B. (2017). ¿Soluciona el descriptivismo causal el problema de la referencia de los términos teóricos? Ideas y Valores, 66(163), 125-151. doi: 10.15446/ideasyvalores.v66n163.49743


Carnap, R. (1936). Testability and meaning. Philosophy of science, 3(4), 419-471. Recuperado de http://www.jstor.org/stable/184400


Carnap, R. (1939). Foundations of Logic and Mathematics. I: 139-213. Foundations of the Unity of Science. Toward an International Encyclopedia of Unified Science 3. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.


Chang, C. C., y Keisler, H. J. (1990). Model theory. Volume 73 of Studies in logic and the foundations of mathematics. 3rd ed. Amsterdam: North Holland. 3rd impression 1992.


Chakravartty, A. (2001). The semantic or model-theoretic view of theories and scientific realism. Synthese, 127(3), 325-345. doi: 10.1023/A:1010359521312


Chakravartty, A. (2007). A metaphysics for scientific realism: Knowing the unobservable. Cambridge University Press.


Chakravartty, A. (2009). Informational versus Function Theories of Scientific Representation. Synthese 72(2), 197-213. doi: 10.1007/s11229-009-9502-3


Cruse, P. y Papineau, D. (2002). Scientific Realism Without Reference. En Marsonet, M. (ed.), The Problem of Realism (pp.174-189). London, Ashgate.


da Costa, N., y French, S. (1990). The model-theoretic approach in the philosophy of science. Philosophy of Science, 57(2), 248-265. doi: 10.1086/289546


da Costa, N., y French, S. (2003) Science and Partial Truth. New York: Oxford University
Press.


French, S. (1989). Identity and individuality in classical and quantum physics. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 67(4), 432-446. doi: 10.1080/00048408912343951


French, S. (2014). The structure of the world: Metaphysics and representation. Oxford University Press.


French, S. y Krause, D. (2006). Identity in Physics: A Historical, Philosophical, and Formal Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.


French, S. y Ladyman, J. (1999). Reinflating the semantic approach. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 13(2), 103-121. doi: 10.1080/02698599908573612


Frigg, R. (2006). Scientific representation and the semantic view of theories. Theoria. Revista de Teoría, Historia y Fundamentos de la Ciencia, 21(1), 49-65. doi: 10.1387/theoria.553


Giere, R. (1988). Explaining Science: A Cognitive Approach. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.


Hintikka, J. (1998), Ramsey Sentences and the Meaning of Quantifiers. Philosophy of Science, 65(2), 289-305. doi: 10.1007/978-94-015-9313-7_13


Hodges, W. (1993). Model theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


Lewis, D. (1970). How to define theoretical terms. The Journal of Philosophy, 67(13), 427-446. doi: 10.2307/2023861


Lutz, S. (2012). On a straw man in the philosophy of science: A defense of the Received View. HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science, 2(1), 77-120. doi: 10.1086/664460


Lutz, S. (2014). What's right with a syntactic approach to theories and models? Erkenntnis, 79(8), 1475-1492. doi: 10.1007/s10670-013-9578-5


Lutz, S. (2015). Partial Model Theory as Model Theory. Ergo, an Open Access Journal of Philosophy, 2(22). doi: 10.3998/ergo.12405314.0002.022


Merrill, G. H. (1980). The model-theoretic argument against realism. Philosophy of Science, 47(1), 69-81. doi: 10.1086/288910


Newman, M.H.A. (1928). Mr. Russell's causal theory of perception. Mind, 37(146), 137-148. doi: 10.1093/mind/XXXVII.146.137


Prze?ecki, M. (1969). The Logic of Empirical Theories. Monographs in Modern Logic Series. London and New York: Routledge y Kegan Paul/Humanities Press.


Psillos, S. (1999). Scientific Realism: How Science Tracks Truth, London: Routledge.


Psillos, S. (2012). Causal descriptivism and the reference of theoretical terms. En Raftopoulos, A. & Machamer, P. (eds.), Perception, realism, and the problem of reference (pp. 212-238). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


Ramsey, F. (1931). Truth and probability. En Braithwaite, R. (ed.), The Foundations of Mathematics and other Logical Essays (pp. 156-198). London: Humanities Press.


Reichenbach, H. (1965). The Theory of Relativity and A Priori Knowledge. Berkeley: University of California Press.


Suárez, M. (2003). Scientific Representation: Against Similarity and Isomorphism. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 17(3), 225-244. doi: 10.1080/0269859032000169442


Suppe, F. (1971). On partial interpretation. The Journal of Philosophy, 68(3), 57-76. doi: 10.2307/2025168


Suppe, F. (1974). The search for philosophic understanding of scientific theories. En Suppe, F. (ed.), The structure of scientific theories (pp. 3-241). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Suppes, P. 1967. What is a Scientific Theory? En Morgenbesser, S., (ed.), Philosophy of Science Today (pp. 55-67). New York: Basic Books.


Suppes, P. (2002). Representation and Invariance of Scientific Structures. Stanford: CSLI Publications.


Tegmark, M. (2008). The mathematical universe. Foundations of Physics, 38(2), 101-150. doi: 10.1007/s10701-007-9186-9


Teller, P. (2001), Twilight of the Perfect Model. Erkenntnis, 55(3), 393-415. doi: 10.1023/A:1013349314515


van Fraassen, B. (1970). On the Extension of Beth's Semantics of Physical Theories. Philosophy of Science, 37(3), 325-339. doi: 10.1086/288311


van Fraassen, B. (1972). A Formal Approach to the Philosophy of Science. En Colodny, R. (ed.), Paradigms and Paradoxes (pp. 303-366). Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.


van Fraassen, Bas C. (1989). Laws and Symmetry. The Clarendon Library of Logic
and Philosophy. Clarendon Press.


van Fraassen, B. C. (2006a). Representation: The problem for structuralism. Philosophy of Science, 73(5), 536-547. doi: 10.1086/518323


van Fraassen, B. C. (2006b). Structure: Its shadow and substance. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 57(2), 275-307. doi: 10.1093/bjps/axl002


van Fraassen, B. C. (2006c). Replies to the papers. En Berg-Hildebrand, A. & Suhm, C. (eds.), Bas van Fraassen: The Fortunes of Empiricism. Münstersche Vorlesungen zur Philosophie (pp. 125-171). Germany: De Gruyter.


Worrall, J. (1989). Structural Realism: The Best of Both Worlds? Dialectica, 43(1-2), 99-124. doi: 10.1111/j.1746-8361.1989.tb00933.x