What Can We Really Know?

Scientific Investigation as a Case for Epistemic Realism

Photo by on

Introduction

What is real? While this question is central to many science fiction stories, such as the 2010 movie Inception, it extends far beyond that context. The nature of true reality is, in fact, at the heart of scientific investigation itself in two different ways. First is the metaphysical question: Is what we perceive real? This is normally what we think about when discussing reality. Equally important to science is the epistemological question: Can we know whether our understanding of objective reality is actually true?

In the realm of science, the question takes on the form of whether one is warranted in believing in the entities posited by scientific theory. In this essay, I will argue that we are justified in taking what science discovers as truth.

Epistemic Realism

Epistemic realism is the position that one is warranted in making truth claims about the entities posited by scientific theories. Scientific study is an activity capable of producing sufficient evidence to justify belief in entities, such as electrons, posited by scientific theories.

It is important to note that this form of realism makes no direct claim as to the ontological status of…