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6 In Search of Reality
The agenda for modern science was lucidly and articulately laid out by the
Dutch-born philosopher of science, Bas van Fraassen, most clearly in his book
The Scientific Image. Toward the beginning of his book, van Fraassen proclaims
the principle that the mission of science is not to give us a “true” story of what
the world is like, but rather, to give us theories which are empirically adequate.
He goes on to explain that a theory is empirically adequate if what it has to say
about things and events in the world saves the appearances. In other words, the
theories we construct on the basis of scientific measurements and observations
must be fully coherent among themselves, and fully consistent with all our
experience, especially the results of scientific experiments.
This mission statement for science is based on the recognition that only the
structure of objects and events is knowable and can be articulated. If scientific
laws are to be free of metaphysics they must confine themselves to assertions
which are relational and structural. In order to accomplish this, the aim of a
scientific research program must be to construct coherent models of natural
phenomena and show that they are supported by observation and experiment.
A model of a phenomenon is intended to be an analog of the original. That
is, whatever the features and behavior of the original, the model should have
corresponding behavior and features. If you have a ‘good’ model, it can be
used to predict features that have not yet been observed in the original. If
experiments subsequently show that the real object has those features then the
model is ‘correct’, or saves the appearances.
The prevailing opinion today in scientific philosophy is that the mission of
science is to create accurate models of reality which correctly predict phenomena. We no longer believe that science can reveal the ultimate truths of the
universe, nor are we sure that such a thing even exists. The grand adventure
of scientific discovery kicked off with the belief that there is a limited number
of things to know in the universe, and that one day we will go through them
all and understand how the cosmos works. Today we understand that the universe has endless vistas, and as we learn more the mystery only deepens. It is
we ourselves—as our understanding advances—who raise and create further
questions that need to be answered.
6 In Search of Reality
The agenda for modern science was lucidly and articulately laid out by the
Dutch-born philosopher of science, Bas van Fraassen, most clearly in his book
The Scientific Image. Toward the beginning of his book, van Fraassen proclaims
the principle that the mission of science is not to give us a “true” story of what
the world is like, but rather, to give us theories which are empirically adequate.
He goes on to explain that a theory is empirically adequate if what it has to say
about things and events in the world saves the appearances. In other words, the
theories we construct on the basis of scientific measurements and observations
must be fully coherent among themselves, and fully consistent with all our
experience, especially the results of scientific experiments.
This mission statement for science is based on the recognition that only the
structure of objects and events is knowable and can be articulated. If scientific
laws are to be free of metaphysics they must confine themselves to assertions
which are relational and structural. In order to accomplish this, the aim of a
scientific research program must be to construct coherent models of natural
phenomena and show that they are supported by observation and experiment.
A model of a phenomenon is intended to be an analog of the original. That
is, whatever the features and behavior of the original, the model should have
corresponding behavior and features. If you have a ‘good’ model, it can be
used to predict features that have not yet been observed in the original. If
experiments subsequently show that the real object has those features then the
model is ‘correct’, or saves the appearances.
The prevailing opinion today in scientific philosophy is that the mission of
science is to create accurate models of reality which correctly predict phenomena. We no longer believe that science can reveal the ultimate truths of the
universe, nor are we sure that such a thing even exists. The grand adventure
of scientific discovery kicked off with the belief that there is a limited number
of things to know in the universe, and that one day we will go through them
all and understand how the cosmos works. Today we understand that the universe has endless vistas, and as we learn more the mystery only deepens. It is
we ourselves—as our understanding advances—who raise and create further
questions that need to be answered.