BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:-//Grails iCalendar plugin//NONSGML Grails iCalendar plugin//EN VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260517T105727Z DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20120814T181500 DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20120814T201500 SUMMARY:“What is Abductive Scientific Realism?” UID:20260527T025413Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@philevents-web-6b96c54f56-bljdq TZID:Australia/Melbourne LOCATION:Old Quad Common Room\, Parkville\, Melbourne\, Australia DESCRIPTION:

In this talk I will examine the current debate on metaphysics of science and I will outline a new approach\, which I call abductive scientific realism. First of all\, I will briefly describe the current state of the metaphysics of science debate in order to demarcate the realist approaches from the anti-realist ones. Secondly\, I will examine the metaphysics of science of scientific realism\, describing its core metaphysical commitments and the central counter-arguments to this view\, viz.\, the pessimistic meta-induction and scientific theory change. Thirdly\, I will present the response to these problems offered by both epistemic and ontic structural realism\, examining the metaphysics of structures and elaborating some problems that structural realists apparently face. And\, fourth\, taking the partial results of the recent discussion between scientific realists and structural realists into consideration\, I will develop three arguments for abductive scientific realism\, namely: (i) a radical\, naturalist approach to the role and limits of metaphysical research\; (ii) an ontology of mixed physico-mathematical facts\; and (iii) an outline of a theory of the nature of laws of nature and their role in scientific explanation. I will conclude that these reasons offer enough evidence to think of abductive scientific realism as a compelling philosophical position in the current debate on metaphysics of science.

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