Defending Underdetermination or Why the Historical Perspective Makes a Difference

Abstract

AbstractIt is revealing to compare W.V.O. Quine’s ‘Two dogmas of empiricism’, the locus classicus for his underdetermination thesis, with the relevant passages about underdetermination in Pierre Duhem’s ‘The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory’. While Duhem’s book is filled with examples from the history of physics, in Quine’s text historical references are almost completely lacking. While Duhem, the acclaimed historian of physics, was practising philosophy of science from a genuinely historical perspective, Quine approached underdetermination from an ahistorical, a logical point of view.KeywordsGood SenseLogical PointDeductive LogicEmpirical AdequacyRival TheoryThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.