Realism versus anti-realism
what is the issue?
pp. 81-96
in: Edna Ullmann-Margalit (ed), Science in reflection, Berlin, Springer, 1988Abstract
The relation between philosophy and the critique of language has provoked some rather extreme pronouncements in the present century. Philosophy, Carnap once said, is the logical analysis of the language of science, and Dummett has quite recently reasserted that the theory of meaning is central to philosophy. On the other side Popper has proclaimed with equal vigor that the study of language has nothing to contribute to the philosophy of science: according to his view, the progress of science lies in the growth of objective knowledge, so the philosophy of science is epistemology, not analysis.
