Sharif Digital Repository

In an official announcement during the inaugural speech in 2012, where Hempel Award presented on behalf of the Philosophy of Science Association to Bas van Fraassen for “a lifetime scholarly achievement in the philosophy of science”, it was said that, “van Fraassen advocates a semantic approach to scientific theories and, on that basis, urges skepticism regarding laws of nature, anti-realism regarding unobservables, and pragmatism regarding explanation” (Gonzalez 2014, 5). van Fraassen’s approach to unobservable entities has a crucial role in his philosophy of science and also in this dissertation. The aim here is to defend van Fraassen’s claim based upon the distinction he makes between... 

One of the main arguments between scientific realists and scientific anti-realists is about observability. As a prominent anti-realist, van Fraassen and his theory of constructive empiricism and his views on observability and the use of scientific instruments, have been the subject of many debates. He believes that observation is the sole path to knowledge and observation is only possible through unaided human eye, so seeing through scientific instruments like microscopes does not count as observation, therefore the information gained from these procedures are not necessarily true.This thesis not only examines van Fraassen’s outlooks on the matter, but also examines his opponents’ view and...