Contents

Introduction: The Conceptual Knots of the Realism Debate............................... 1

Evandro Agazzi

The Debates on Scientific Realism Today: Knowledge

and Objectivity in Science....................................................................................

Mario Alai

The Truth of Theories and Scientific Realism..................................................... 49

Evandro Agazzi

Part I Realism and Antirealism

Strict Empiricism Versus Explanation in Science............................................... 71

Alan Musgrave

Misdirection and Misconception in the Scientific Realism Debates................ 95

Bas C. van Fraassen

Selective Scientific Realism: Representation, Objectivity

and Truth........................................................................................................... 109

Michel Ghins

Robustness, Intersubjective Reproducibility, and Scientific

Realism............................................................................................................... 133

Marco Buzzoni

Cognitive Illusions and Nonrealism: Objections and Replies........................... 151

Thomas Nickles

Why Do Theories Fail? The Best Argument for Realism................................. 165

Gerhard Vollmer

The Epistemological Problem of the Objectivity of Knowledge....................... 177

Fabio Minazzi

Part II Recent Conceptions of Scientific Realism

Scientific Realism and the Mind-Independence of the World........................... 209

Stathis Psillos

Structural Realism and the Toolbox of Metaphysics........................................ 227

Steven French

Retention, Truth-Content and Selective Realism.............................................. 245

Alberto Cordero

A Scheme-Interpretationist and Actionistic Scientific Realism..........................

Hans Lenk

Part III Scientific Realism in Particular Sciences

Semantic Definition of Truth, Empirical Theories and Scientific

Realism............................................................................................................... 279

Jan Wolenski

Underdetermination, Realism and Objectivity in Quantum

Mechanics........................................................................................................... 295

Dennis Dieks

Is Uniqueness of Reality Predicted by the Quantum Laws?............................. 315

Roland Omnes

Theories and Models: Realism and Objectivity in Cognitive

Science................................................................................................................. 331

Jean-Guy Meunier

Realism as the Methodological Strategy in the Cognitive Science................. 353

V.A. Lektorski

Causation and Scientific Realism: Mechanisms and Powers

without Essentialism........................................................................................... 367

Amparo Gomez

Objectivity in Mathematics: The Structuralist Roots

of a Pragmatic Realism...................................................................................... 385

Gerhard Heinzmann

Mathematical Truth Revisited: Mathematics as a Toolbox.............................. 395

Reinhard Kahle

Index of Names................................................................................................... 407