Perspectival Realism

by Michela Massimi

Overview

What does it mean to be a realist about science if one takes seriously the view that scientific knowledge is always perspectival, namely historically and culturally situated? In Perspectival Realism, Michela Massimi explores how scientific knowledge grows and evolves thanks to a plurality of epistemic communities occupying a number of scientific perspectives. The result is a philosophical view that goes under the name of "perspectival realism", and it offers a new lens for thinking about scientific knowledge, realism and pluralism in science.

Perspectival Realism begins with an exploration of how epistemic communities often resort to several models and a plurality of practices, drawing on examples from nuclear physics, climate science, and developmental psychology. Massimi explains the perspectival nature of scientific representation, the role of scientific models as inferential blueprints, and the variety of scientific realism that naturally accompanies such a view. Perspectival realism is realism about phenomena (rather than about theories or unobservable entities). This novel realist view places epistemic communities and their situated knowledge center stage. The result is a portrait of scientific knowledge as a collaborative inquiry, where the reliability of science is made possible by a plurality of historically and culturally situated scientific perspectives. Along the way, Massimi offers insight into the nature of scientific modelling, scientific knowledge qua modal knowledge, data-to-phenomena inferences, and natural kinds as sortal concepts.

Perspectival Realism offers a realist view that takes the multicultural nature of science seriously and couples it with cosmopolitan duties about how one ought to think about scientific knowledge and the distribution of benefits gained from scientific advancements.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780197555620
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/08/2022
Series:	Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Science
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Michela Massimi is Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Edinburgh. Massimi works on general philosophy of science, history and philosophy of modern physics, Kant's philosophy of nature and Kantianism in philosophy of science. She is Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and Member of the Academia Europaea. She served as Vice-President of the European Philosophy of Science Association (2015-2019) and she is currently President-Elect of the Philosophy of Science Association. From 2016 to 2021 she was the Principal Investigator of the ERC Consolidator Grant "Perspectival Realism".

Table of Contents

Part I. PERSPECTIVAL MODELLING
Chapter 1. The short tale of a long journey
Chapter 2. The perspectival nature of scientific representation
Chapter 3. Pluralism and perspectivism
Chapter 4. Perspectival modelling as modelling possibilities
Chapter 4.a: A tale from the atomic nucleus ca. 1930s-1950s
Chapter 4.b: A tale from the ice, the sea and the land: climate modelling
Chapter 4.c: A tale from the development of language in children
Chapter 5. Inferential blueprints and windows on reality

Part II. THE WORLD AS WE PERSPECTIVALLY MODEL IT
Chapter 6. From data to phenomena
Chapter 7. Natural Kinds with a Human Face
Chapter 8. The inferentialist view of natural kinds
Chapter 9. Sorting phenomena into kinds
Chapter 10. Evolving natural kinds
Chapter 11. Multiculturalism and Cosmopolitanism in science

Editorial Reviews

"She provides interesting and substantial reframing/rethinking of some key issues that have emerged in past realist/anti-realist debates, arguing for the contemporary cosmopolitan scientist's "rights and obligations" to share scientific knowledge and its benefits." — R. DeWitt, CHOICE

"A bridging project like Massimi pursues is deeply appealing. This broad divide between a philosophical focus on the messy details of science and a philosophical focus on what science achieves recurs, I think, because philosophers are more or less united in our desire to accommodate both focuses. Massimi's Perspectival Realism positions itself to do justice to both focuses and ultimately transcend the divide. Along the way, it is incredibly expansive in the philosophical questions and philosophical work it engages with. ...Indeed, this book is expansive and ambitious enough that it may need to be read perspectivally." — Angela Potochnik, The Philosophical Quarterly

"Massimi's new book is, by far, the most complex, comprehensive and intellectually exciting attempt of rethinking the epistemological and metaphysical foundations of perspectival realism since the publication of Giere's Scientific Perspectivism. ....her book is going to be a turning point for the state of the art in scientific perspectivism and for the general philosophy of science per se. We are at the forking junction of our own philosophical scientific garden, with strong grounds to believe that we found, thanks to Massimi, a genuine path rather than a dead-end." — Daian Bica, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science

"Massimi's book constructs a new vision of realism in science that will be highly influential for years to come." — Carrie Figdor, New Books Network

"Massimi presents a spirited defence of a philosophical position that is at once perspectivalist and realist, and she supports it with detailed case studies in the history of science as well as contemporary practice. Her view of the role of perspective in scientific representation is challenging and provocative, and will help to show the way out of the aporiae of traditional realist/anti-realist ways of thinking." — Bas van Fraassen

"What is really out there? Philosophers might argue about whether a thing is real, while scientists ignore the question entirely. Exploring the novel view of perspectival realism, Massimi guides us in the explorations of real phenomena as studied by scientists. Through delightful examples from physics to psychology, she reveals new insights that can satisfy sceptical philosophers as well as scientists. Best of all, the view thrives on the social nature of the scientific enterprise." — Uta Frith

"I find perspectival realism to be among the most interesting viewpoints in contemporary philosophy of science. I much welcome the ample and insightful elaboration that Michela Massimi gives of it in this book" — Carlo Rovelli

"This book is a must-read for anybody interested in cutting-edge philosophy of science. Massimi has successfully reframed the debate on scientific realism to address the central issue for contemporary research: how culturally situated scientific practices can—and do—produce reliable claims. Combining philosophical rigour with empirical insights from multiple scientific domains, this book ascribes the epistemic power of scientific research to its social, fallible and pluralist nature, thus providing a robust alternative to understanding scientific knowledge as a universally true "view from nowhere"." — Sabina Leonelli

"Books that elaborate an illuminating and original approach to a cluster of important philosophical topics are rare. Those that combine their creativity with truly remarkable breadth and depth of scholarship are to be treasured. This is one of them. It is a magnificent achievement." — Philip Kitcher

"I(Omar El Mawas) believe that this philosophically rich and scientifcally packed book is a very welcome addition, and will likely become a classic text on realism and pluralism in science." — Omar El Mawas, Metascience

"I(Omar El Mawas) believe that this philosophically rich and scientifcally packed book is a very welcome addition, and will likely become a classic text on realism and pluralism in science." — Omar El Mawas, Metascience

"Massimi has succeeded in setting the agenda for future philosophical thinking about science, both at the level of the content (rich as her book is in its engagement with a host of philosophical issues) and at the level of style (with its wealth of information about science in its history and its current polymorphous practice)." — Maria Panagiotatou and Stathis Psillos, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"I believe that this philosophically rich and scientifically packed book is a very welcome addition, and will likely become a classic text on realism and pluralism in science." — Omar El Mawas, Metascience

From the Publisher