Scientific Realism and Antirealism

The course aims to provide an introduction to the central issue in general philosophy of science, namely the realism/antirealism debate. The course will preliminarily address the question of whether general philosophy of science can still be legitimately understood as a philosophical enterprise which is distinct from the philosophies of specific scientific disciplines that flourished in the last decades. Successively, the course will deal with the realism/antirealism debate. Traditional arguments for and against scientific realism and antirealism will be analysed in detail. Some of the most relevant criticisms raised against those arguments and some of the most interesting rejoinders to those criticisms will also be analysed. Finally, some more recent varieties of scientific realism and antirealism will be discussed.

Cellucci, C. (2017). Rethinking Knowledge. The Heuristic View. Dordrecht, Springer (Chapter 8: p. 93-106).

Chakravartty, A. (2017). Scientific Realism. In: Zalta, E.N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, URL: .

Machamer, P. (2002). A Brief Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Science. In: Machamer, P., Silberstein, M. (eds.), The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Science, Oxford, Blackwell, p. 1-17.

Psillos, S. (2012). What is General Philosophy of Science? Journal for Gen. Phil. of Science, 43(1): 93-103.

Psillos, S. (2016). Having Science in View: General Philosophy of Science and its Significance. In: Humphreys, P. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Science, Oxford, Oxford University Press, p. 137-160.

Stanford, K.P. (2006). Exceeding Our Grasp. Science, History, and the Problem of Unconceived Alternatives. Oxford, Oxford University Press (Chapters 1, 2, 6; p. 3-50; p. 141-163).

van Fraassen, B. (2008). Scientific Representation. Paradoxes of Perspective. Oxford, Oxford University Press (Chapter 11: p. 237-261).

Wray, K.B. (2018). Resisting Scientific Realism. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.