34 lines
1.2 KiB
Markdown
34 lines
1.2 KiB
Markdown
---
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id:
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aliases: []
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title: Realism vs. Instrumentalism
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tags:
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- authorship/original
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- destiny/fleeting
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- status/draft
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- type/encyclopedia-entry
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dg-publish: true
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---
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# Realism vs. Instrumentalism
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Realism holds that the purpose of [scientific research](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research)
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is to describe the world as accurately as possible.
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Instrumentalism (anti-realism) argues that the purpose
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is to _forecast as accurately as possible_.
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> [!quote] George E. P. Box, British statistician
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> All models are wrong, but some are useful.[^1]
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[^1]: > [!quote] [[box_1987_empirical-model-building#The Use of Approximating Functions]]
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> The fact that the polynomial is an approximation
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> does not necessarily detract from its usefulness
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> because all models are approximations.
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> Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful.
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> [!quote] _Opinionated History of Mathematics_, "Did Copernicus steal ideas from Islamic astronomers?" (pp.)
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> Ptolemy's lunar model is "flawed"
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> in that it inaccurately describes Luna's distance from Earth,
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> however Ptolemy only ever used the model to predict eclipses,
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> which the model does very well.
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> The discrepancy is only a flaw from a realist perspective.
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