Scientific realism

Anjan Chakravartty

pp. 1-40

in: Brigitte Falkenburg, Particle metaphysics, Berlin, Springer, 2007

Abstract

Most physicists have a realistic view of physical entities. They assume that they investigate real forces, electromagnetic fields and subatomic particles such as electrons, protons or neutrons. They presuppose that these entities exist in nature, outside as well as inside a physics laboratory. They consider them to be the true causes and constituents of experimental and natural phenomena, even if any physical theory describes them in terms of mathematical idealizations. They subscribe to an unquestioned realism regarding subatomic particles when they detect and analyze particle tracks in the scattering experiments of high energy physics; and when they assume that the detection is due to electromagnetic effects in the electronic devices of their experiments.