The Philosophy Of Physical Realism

Originally published in 1963. In an introductory chapter the author argues that philosophy ought to be more than the art of clarifying thought and that it should concern itself with outlining a scientifically plausible world view. Early chapters deal with phenomenalism and the reality of theoretical entities, and with the relation between the physical and biological sciences. Free will, issues of time and space and man’s place in nature are covered in later chapters.

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Excerpt from Physical Realism: Being an Analytical Philosophy From the Physical Objects of Science to the Physical Data of Sense 'Natural Philosophy, as now regarded, treats generally of the physical universe, and deals fearlessly alike with quantities too great to be distinctly conceived, and with quantities almost infinitely too small to be perceived even with the most powerful microscopes; such as, for instance, distances through which the light of stars or nebulae, though moving at the rate of about 130,000 miles per second, takes many years to travel; or the size of the particles of water, whose number in a single drop may, as we have reason to believe, amount to somewhere about 10, or 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Yet we successfully inquire not only into the composition of the atmospheres of these distant stars, but into the number and properties of these water-particles; nay, even into the laws by which they act upon one another. This quotation from Professor Tail's 'Recent Advances in Physical Science' is a recognition of the reality of the insensible, and of its knowledge by the natural philosopher, as facts. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

"An authoritative account of the semantic conception of theories by one of its chief developers. Suppe has always seen the semantic conception as providing a way of moving beyond empiricist philosophies of science. This book provides the definitive account of his views not only on the issue of realism, but also on a variety of other issues central to the philosophy of science." -- Ronald N. Giere, author of Explaining Science: A Cognitive Approach