Bas van Fraassen Quotes on Knowledge

Quotes

• Attributed to Bas van Fraassen:

  “The aim of science is to give us theories that are empirically adequate; truth about the unobservable is a bonus we cannot guarantee.”

• Attributed to Bas van Fraassen:

  “Constructive empiricism is realism's twin, distinguished only by the question of what is to be believed.”

• Attributed to Bas van Fraassen:

  “To accept a theory is not to believe it true; it is to commit to using it for empirical inquiry.”

• Attributed to Bas van Fraassen:

  “Empiricism is a stance, not a doctrine; it is the discipline of asking what experience can support.”

• Attributed to Bas van Fraassen:

  “The image of science is what philosophy of science properly studies; the science is for the scientists.”

• “The Scientific Image (1980), p. 40.”

  I claim that the success of current scientific theories is no miracle. It is not even surprising to the scientific (Darwinist) mind. For any scientific theory is born into a life of fierce competition, a jungle red in tooth and claw. Only the successful theories survive—the ones which in fact latched onto the actual regularities in nature.