Is logical empiricism compatible with scientific realism?

Matthias Neuber

pp. 249-262

in: Maria C. Galavotti, Elisabeth Nemeth, Friedrich Stadler (eds), European philosophy of science, Berlin, Springer, 2014

Abstract

Scientific realism is the view that the theoretical entities of science exist. Atoms, forces, electromagnetic fields, and so on, are not merely instruments for organizing observational data but are real and causally effective. This view seems to be hardly compatible with the logical empiricist agenda: As common wisdom has it, logical empiricism is mainly characterized by a strong verification criterion of meaning, i.e., by the project of defining the meaning of theoretical terms by virtue of the meaning of purely observational terms. However, it has been largely ignored by the historians of logical empiricism that there indeed existed a realist faction within the logical empiricist movement.