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    Carmelics

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    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Quine and Putnam's indispensability argument holds that ontological commitment is owed to any entity whose posit is ineliminable from our best confirmed scientific theories.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Multiple empirically equivalent theories can posit radically different ontologies, so indispensability doesn't track what genuinely exists.
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    • 2.Mathematical objects (sets, numbers) may be ineliminable from physics yet be merely useful fictions rather than real entities.
      ?

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    • 3.Scientific theories evolve; today's indispensable entity often becomes tomorrow's obsolete posit, undermining the argument's stability.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Our best scientific theories are our most reliable guides to what exists, as they've survived rigorous empirical testing and peer review.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.If we can reformulate a theory to eliminate an entity without loss of empirical adequacy, we should prefer the simpler theory.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Entities ineliminable from all such simplified theories deserve ontological commitment as genuinely indispensable to explaining nature.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

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