or the theory must be true. This means that all observable things have to be true, things from the past, things in the future, and things in different far away galaxies. Churchland believes that by van Fraassen claiming this, he is underdetermining all observable objects and events. The objects or events could be different from what they were in the past, they could be different in the future, and they may be different on another planet that we have not discovered. Churchland believes that anti-realists are cowards for not taking a chance to further their beliefs. He says, “One might decide to relinquish all one’s beliefs save those about objects weighing less than 500 kg, and perhaps one would then be logically safer. But in the absence of some relevant epistemic difference between one’s beliefs about other objects, this is perversity, not parsimony. (276)” •Pessimistic Meta-Induction – Theories from earlier times have been abandoned, what is to stop the theories of today from being proven false in the future. The pessimistic meta-induction argument is an attempt by non-realists to keep all theories from being called true. This is the argument that previous theories have eventually been found untrue, so what is to keep our theories of today from being found not to be true. A response to that argument could be that we have become so technically advanced that our theories are much stronger and the only way for our theories to be abandoned would be if another technological revolution occurred. •Skeptical Underdetermination Argument1.Only believe one theory T is true, over another theory T*, if you have more evidence for the truth of T than T*.2.The only evidence to support the truth of ANY theory, based on observation or theoretical terms, is perceptual experience3.Our perceptual experiences underdetermine the truth of all theories, for example the Demon or ordinary object could be true...
