Nominalism, realism and objectivity

Catherine Z. Elgin

pp. 519-534

in: Darrell P. Rowbottom, Jamin Asay (eds), Scientific realism, Synthese 196 (2), 2019.

Abstract

I argue that constructive nominalism is preferable to scientific realism. Rather than reflecting without distortion the way the mind-independent world is, theories refract. They provide an understanding of the world as modulated by a particular theory. Truth is defined within a theoretical framework rather than outside of it. This does not undermine objectivity, for an assertion contains a (perhaps tacit) reference to the framework in terms of which its truth is claimed.