26 lines
860 B
Markdown
26 lines
860 B
Markdown
---
|
||
id:
|
||
aliases: []
|
||
tags:
|
||
- authorship/original
|
||
- destiny/fleeting
|
||
- status/draft
|
||
title: Realism vs. Instrumentalism
|
||
---
|
||
# Realism vs. Instrumentalism
|
||
|
||
Realism holds that the purpose of [scientific research](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research)
|
||
is to describe the world as accurately as possible.
|
||
Instrumentalism (anti-realism) holds that the purpose
|
||
is to make accurate predictions.
|
||
|
||
> [!quote] George E. P. Box, British statistician
|
||
> All models are wrong, but some are useful.
|
||
|
||
> [!quote] _Opinionated History of Mathematics_, "Did Copernicus steal ideas from Islamic astronomers?" (pp.)
|
||
> Ptolemy's lunar model is "flawed"
|
||
> in that it inaccurately describes Luna's distance from Earth,
|
||
> however Ptolemy only ever used the model to predict eclipses,
|
||
> which the model does very well.
|
||
> The discrepancy is only a flaw from a realist perspective.
|