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Scientific Realism from a Polysystemic View of Physical Theories and their Functioning

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Abstract

One of the vividly discussed topics in the contemporary philosophy of science (especially physics) is the opposition between Realism and Anti-Realism. The supporters of the first way of thinking trust in the objective existence of realities studied by science. They consider theories as approximate descriptions of these realities (Psillos 1999, xvii), whereas their opponents do not. However, both sides base their argumentation on simplified notions of scientific theories. In this paper, we present a more general approach, which can be coined as “Theoretical Physics Realism” (TPR). It is based on the detailed reconstruction of the polysystemic nature of physical theories. The consequences of this reconstruction for understanding the genuine relationship between theories and experiments in studying the realities are indicated. The paper distinguishes between abstract (general) and domain-dependent theories and appeals to specific physical theories together with their application domains rather than to general speculations.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Ukrainian Armed Forces and our Western allies, who made possible the preparation of this paper. Alexander Gabovich is supported by Grant No. 1.4.B-197 of the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He is also grateful to the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems for the invitation to Dresden and Joint Ukrainian-Polish program (2022–2024), Grant No. 23. Vladimir Kuznetsov is supported by the Project Logical, Ontological and Axiological Dimensions of Scientific Cognition of the Program Priorities Directions of Scientific Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (2021). We are also grateful to the editors and the anonymous referee for valuable and stimulating remarks and corrections.

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  1. Institute of Physics of the Ukrainian, National Academy of Sciences, Nauka Avenue, 46, Kyiv, 03028, Ukraine

    Alexander M. Gabovich

  2. H. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Trokhsvyatytelska Street 4, Kyiv, 01001, Ukraine

    Vladimir Kuznetsov

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Correspondence to Vladimir Kuznetsov.

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Gabovich, A.M., Kuznetsov, V. Scientific Realism from a Polysystemic View of Physical Theories and their Functioning. glob. Philosophy 33, 53 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10516-023-09703-0

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