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.