Scientific Revolutions and the Explosion of Scientific Evidence
Fahrbach, Ludwig (2016) Scientific Revolutions and the Explosion of Scientific Evidence. [Preprint]
Abstract
Scientific realism, the position that successful theories are likely to be approximately true, is threatened by the pessimistic induction according to which the history of science is full of successful, but false theories. I aim to defend scientific realism against the pessimistic induction. My main thesis is that our current best theories each enjoy a very high degree of predictive success, far higher than was enjoyed by any of the refuted theories. I support this thesis by showing that both the amount, and quality, of scientific evidence has increased enormously in the recent past, resulting in a big boost of success for the best theories.
Fahrbach, Ludwig ludwig.fahrbach@gmail.com
Keywords: scientific realism, pessimistic induction, no-miracle argument, explosion of evidence
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