Chris Hooley. Putnam vs. Van Fraasen - A view from the coal face. Or: What, if anything, are scientists talking about?
In this talk, I shall revisit a central question in the philosophy of
science: what should our attitude be to claims like "tables are made of
atoms"? Do they have the same status as "jigsaws are made of pieces"? -
implying that we believe in the reality of both the jigsaw and the pieces?
Or are they, rather, to be viewed as steps in a calculation, with no truth
values of their own?
I shall suggest that there are good arguments against each of these views,
drawing on some examples from current physics that are not widely used.
There will follow a rather more speculative discussion of where we might
go from here.