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Should the Empiricist Be a Constructive Empiricist?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Marc Alspector-Kelly
Marc Alspector-Kelly*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Western Michigan University
*
†Send requests for reprints to author, Department of Philosophy, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008–5022; email; marc.alspector-kelly@wmich.edu.
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Abstract

Van Fraassen does not argue that everyone should be a constructive empiricist. He claims only that constructive empiricism (CE) is a coherent post-positivist alternative to realism, notwithstanding the realist's charge that CE is arbitrary and irrational. He does argue, however, that the empiricist is obliged to limit belief as CE prescribes. Criticism of CE has been largely directed at van Fraassen's claim that CE is a coherent option. Far less attention has been directed at his claim that empiricists should be constructive empiricists. I consider his various attempts to support this claim, conclude that they are unsuccessful, and suggest that the empiricist who repudiates CE does not thereby abandon contemporary empiricism itself.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 68 , Issue 4 , December 2001 , pp. 413 - 431
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 2001

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Footnotes

‡

I would like to thank Tammy Alspector-Kelly for her comments and encouragement.

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