Resisting Scientific Realism

K. Brad Wray is Associate Professor at the Centre for Science Studies at Aarhus Universitet, Denmark. He has published extensively on anti-realism in philosophy of science, the social epistemology of science, and Thomas Kuhn's philosophy of science, including Kuhn's Evolutionary Social Epistemology (Cambridge, 2011).

• Introduction; Part I. Against Realism: 1. The Copernican Revolution in astronomy; 2. The underdetermination of theory choice by evidence; 3. The argument from underconsideration; 4. Epistemic privilege: another realist dogma; 5. Four pessimistic inductions; 6. Pessimism, optimism, and the exponential growth of science; 7. The nature of radical theory change; 8. Do the theoretical values really support scientific realism?; Part II. Strengthening Anti-Realism: 9. But can the anti-realist explain the success of science?; 10. Selection and predictive success; 11. How are false theories able to make true predictions?; 12. Discarded theories: the role of changing interests; 13. A synthesis.

'With its insightful and engaging critique Resisting Scientific Realism takes on every argument that scientific realists have offered, but does much more than that. What emerges along the way is a strengthened anti-realism skillfully aligned with epistemic modesty about the continuing historical development of the sciences. It will be a delightful and rewarding read for realists and anti-realists alike.' Bas Van Fraassen, Princeton University, New Jersey