Larry Lauden's 'A Confutation of Convergent Realism'

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Larry Lauden in his article 'A Confutation of Convergent Realism' formulates an argument against scientific realism from the perspective of pessimistic induction. The author points out that Lauden rightly states that other philosophers' suggestions that epistemological realism is an empirical hypothesis, which is authenticated by its ability to explain the workings of science, is becoming a significant problem. The paper presents Lauden's methods of attack from which he tackles this assumption of reference and demonstrates how the historical, empirical evidence simply does not exist to support the realist claims. The author concludes that Lauden's debunking of scientific realism via their epistemological dependence on reference and retention is a useful and effective method of philosophical analysis.

From the Paper:

"Scientific realism is, most basically, the idea that "[m]ature scientific theories are (approximately true." Lauden delves into the meat of this basic statement by dissecting realism into bite-sized chunks that can be more easily analyzed and (in this case) refuted. While Lauden does debunk various aspects of scientific realism, one aspect of it with which he is particularly concerned is the matter of reference. Lauden lists five characteristics of convergent epistemological realism, which he has aggregated from the available resources on scientific realism."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Frost-Arnold, Greg. "Pessimistic Induction + Incommensurability = Instrumentalism?" Obscure and Confused Ideas: Idiosyncartic Perspectives on Philosophy of Science, Its History, and Related Issues in Logic. 15 Mar. 2006. 7 Dec. 2006 <http://obscureandconfused.blogspot.com/2006/03/pessimistic-induction.html>.
• Lauden, Larry. "A Confutation of Covergent Realism." Philosophy of Science 48 (1981): 19-49.

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