Pragmatism for Philosophy of Science

Abstract

Abstract This chapter introduces the volume, highlighting key themes and programmatic features of a pragmatist approach to topics in philosophy of science and metaphysics. Pragmatism is a potent tool at the interface between methodological and applied questions arising from scientific practice, and the underlying ontological or metaphysical commitments that are implied by or frame those questions. For topics at the intersection of philosophy of science and metaphysics, pragmatism is an effective way to take entrenched debates and re-frame them in ways that challenge old dichotomies and offer more fruitful paths forward. Pragmatist approaches here involve the inextricability of methodological or epistemological commitments with more fundamental or metaphysical questions. Many traditional dichotomies such as realism versus antirealism, truth versus idealization, unification versus disunity, are challenged, and alternatives developed from a more holist and pragmatist perspective.