HPS100 Lecture 05: Scientific Progress

IMPORTANT: Please note that the content of this particular lecture no longer reflects my views on the subject. Specifically, I don't think that my original exposition of selective realist positions does justice to them. I've tried to rectify this in our introductory HPS textbook. You can access the textbook here: http://hakobsandbox.openetext.utoronto.ca/ --- Do our best theories correctly describe the external world? Is there scientific progress? 00:30 Scientific Realism vs. Scientific Anti-Realism 04:57 Two Versions of Scientific Realism ___ 05:20 Structural Realism ___ 08:14 Entity Realism ___ 09:32 Contra Structural Realism ___ 13:30 Contra Entity Realism ___ 16:52 Selective Scientific Realism vs. Fallibilism 20:10 Changing the Question: Is there Scientific Progress? 21:40 Progress in Music, Art, and Sport 26:53 Progress in Science 30:32 Progress Thesis vs. No-Progress Thesis 32:40 The Problem of Progress in the TSC 37:00 No-Miracles Argument 41:23 Pessimistic Induction Argument ___ 53:26 The Pessimistic Induction Argument Debunked 56:00 Summary: Progress Thesis vs. No-Progress Thesis You can access all the slideshows here https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ah0oClIIIQL82HACQ_nHOzNdmUF6 The course is funded by University of Toronto, Online Learning Strategies (http://onlinelearning.utoronto.ca/) and the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (http://www.hps.utoronto.ca/) Watch in HD 1080 for the best quality.