Constructive Empiricism
Constructive empiricism holds that the aim of science is empirical adequacy, not truth, so accepting a theory need not mean believing what it says about unobservables.
Definition
Constructive empiricism is the view that science aims to give us theories that are empirically adequate — true in what they say about observable phenomena — and that acceptance of a theory involves belief only in its empirical adequacy, not in its full truth.
Scope
This topic covers van Fraassen's distinction between acceptance and belief, the notion of empirical adequacy, the observable/unobservable distinction, and the main objections concerning the vagueness of observability and the alleged arbitrariness of stopping belief at the observable.
Core questions
- What is the difference between accepting and believing a theory?
- How is the observable/unobservable line to be drawn?
- Is belief in empirical adequacy more cautious than belief in truth?
- Why stop belief at the observable rather than the detectable?
Key concepts
- empirical adequacy
- acceptance versus belief
- observable/unobservable distinction
- epistemic voluntarism
Key theories
- Empirical adequacy as the aim of science
- A theory is empirically adequate if what it says about observable things is true; science aims at adequacy, and acceptance commits one only to adequacy plus practical immersion in the theory.
- Acceptance versus belief
- van Fraassen distinguishes the epistemic attitude of belief from the broader attitude of acceptance, which includes a commitment to the theory's research programme without belief in its unobservable claims.
History
van Fraassen introduced constructive empiricism in The Scientific Image (1980) as a successor to logical positivism's instrumentalism. The 1985 volume Images of Science collected the major realist critiques and his replies, establishing the position as the leading contemporary antirealist alternative.
Debates
- The observability line
- Critics such as Churchland argue that the observable/unobservable distinction is vague and anthropocentric, while van Fraassen defends it as marking the limits of what humans could in principle observe unaided.
Key figures
- Bas van Fraassen
- Paul Churchland
- Clifford Hooker
Related topics
Seminal works
- vanfraassen1980
Frequently asked questions
- Does a constructive empiricist deny that electrons exist?
- No. The constructive empiricist neither asserts nor denies that electrons exist; she accepts theories that posit them as empirically adequate while suspending belief about the truth of their unobservable claims, treating such belief as going beyond what the evidence warrants.