On Wed 25 Jan, we will revisit the article by Maxwell (Chpt. 4) and go on to discuss van Fraassen's article (Chpt. 5). As the title of his article suggests, van Fraassen is interested in defending the distinction between observables and unobservables even though he agrees that the distinction between observation terms and theoretical terms is not well-founded (remember: language vs. world!).
Read
- Maxwell, Chpt 4.
- van Fraassen, Chpt. 5
Think About
- What are the main arguments Maxwell presents and what philosophical position is he trying to defend?
- Why does van Fraassen believe that the distinction between theoretical terms and observation terms is not well-founded?
- According to van Fraassen, what guidelines can we use for distinguishing observables from unobservables? Do his guidelines work? What consequences do they have?
- Why does van Fraassen think the distinction between observables vs. unobservables is related to the issue of scientific realism?
