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Notes
This review was written while visiting Harvard University in 2009 and I want to thank the Philosophy Department, and Hilary Putnam in particular, for sponsorship during my visit. Financial support is acknowledged from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, project HUM2008-06418-C03-01, and stay abroad PR2008-0079.
My discussion here will repeat some of what I (2006b, 152–158) wrote in response to Rosenhagen.
For an exploration of this issue in a critique of constructive empiricism see Sober (1985).
This goes for simple, direct reports of observation or measurement outcomes. Not for some more complex sorts of report: that I saw that James was not in the room does not imply that I saw James.
In an earlier symposium with Ladyman (van Fraassen 2007) I acknowledged the coherence Ladyman’s view, while suggesting a qualification that seemed to me not to count as a defeat. But I think that it was not in the spirit of ontic structural realism.
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Ladyman, J., Bueno, O., Suárez, M. et al. Scientific representation: A long journey from pragmatics to pragmatics. Metascience 20, 417–442 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-010-9465-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-010-9465-5