Chères et chers collègues, Je suis très heureux de vous annoncer la publication de l'ouvrage "Modal Empiricism: Interpreting Science Without Scientific Realism" chez Springer. Ce livre a pour objet de développer une approche pragmatiste envers les sciences qui prend la forme d'une position originale dans le débat sur le réalisme scientifique, l'empirisme modal. Le livre est disponible à l'adresse suivante : https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-72349-1 Vous trouverez ci-dessous un résumé en anglais.
Bien cordialement, Quentin Ruyant * This book aims at presenting the precise articulation of a pragmatist stance towards science, a stance that takes the form of an anti-realist position in the debate on scientific realism: modal empiricism. As its name implies, modal empiricism is a version of empiricism that is committed to the idea that there are possibilities in the world and natural constraints on these possibilities. According to modal empiricism, our best scientific theories reflect the way these constraints affect our possible observations and actions and thus allow us to navigate in this world successfully. This is the kind of understanding that science provides. The view is associated with a pragmatic account of scientific representation, according to which abstract scientific models convey norms for their applications in particular contexts. These norms are geared towards empirical success in all possible situations, and unification. The position is also based on an original notion of situated modalities, together with an inductive epistemology for modalities, which can defuse scepticism about modal knowledge. I argue that modal empiricism makes better sense of scientific practice as a rational activity than other versions of empiricism. I explain how it can account for scientific success without inference to the best explanation, how exactly it differs from structural realism and how these differences make it better apt to respond to the problem of theory change. Finally, I briefly explore the possibility of a (revisionist) pragmatist metaphysics for science. This book is of interest to any philosopher involved in the debate on scientific realism, or interested in how to properly understand the content, aim and achievements of science. * -- https://www.vidal-rosset.net/mailing_list_educasupphilo.html
