Abstract

This chapter describes the Duhem's instrumentalism and its critique. Duhem's statement concerning the laws of physics appears to be a clear indication of his instrumentalism only as long as it remains in incomplete form. A law of physics is neither true nor false but approximate. One does not refer to mere instruments, which cannot perform a descriptive function as approximate. It is found that from Duhem's elucidation of what he means by approximate, it becomes obvious that he regards physical laws as descriptive, although not in the same, simple way as common-sense laws. The degree of the indetermination of abstract symbols depends on the degree of approximation with which quantities can be measured. The latter varies with time and increases with the improvements of instruments.

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