Daian Bica
Heinrich-Heine-Universiy
Scientific perspectivism came into being as an attempt of reconciling anti-realist (i.e., scientific knowledge is contingent/situated) with realist theses (i.e., there are mind-independent entities, properties, laws) (cf. Giere 2006, Massimi 2022). As a purported middle path between both, Giere extended this claim to scientific instrumentation – an instrument, i.e., the knowledge gained through a given scientific instrument, is said to be perspectival since the given instrument responds to limited features of the environment (e.g., wavelength). However, this extension of Giere’s perspectivism to instrumentation was found to be “self-evident” because this is precisely how an instrument works in scientific practice: by being limited to a range of (detectable) inputs (Creţu 2022). Henceforth, it is highly questionable if Giere’s view on perspectival instrumentation is philosophically informative at all.
In this contribution, I shall assess a proposal for saving the perspectival argument regarding instrumentation by making reference to “the scale-relativity of ontology” (Ladyman & Ross 2007, Crețu 2021): scientific instrumentation is perspectival due to its interaction with different mind-independent energy scales. Within this framework, scales are magnitudes/scales of measurement, at which the existence of entities shall be indexed, such as length, time, space, numerosity, and energy. Despite its interesting appeal, I shall show that the reference to scales, quite popular in the literature, is unfitted for delivering the sought-for middle path. While the adoption of scale-relativity makes perspectivism immune to the charge of self-evidence, the idea of scales brings in huge disadvantages. First, it succumbs to a form of traditional scientific realism, which perspectival realists strive to avoid. Second, it fails to deliver a middle path because that it implodes into traditional scientific realism.
Crețu, Ana-Maria (2021), “Authentication, Scale-Relativity, and Relational Kindhood“, Synthese, 200
Crețu, Ana-Maria (2022), “Perspectival Instruments”, Philosophy of Science 89 (3) : 521-541
Giere, Ronald (2006), Scientific Perspectivism: Princeton University Press
Massimi, Michela (2022): Perspectival Realism: OUP
Ladyman, James & Ross, Don (2007), Everything Must Go: OUP
Chair: Cristina Somcutean
Time: September 6th, 14:00-14:30
Location: SR 1.007
SOPhiA 2026 