pirically adequate?•Science aims to give us theories which are empirically adequate; and acceptance of a theory involves as belief only that it is empirically adequate•Science should only claim to be empirically adequate•Theoretical terms should only be taken to be empirically adequateBas van Fraassen is an anti-realist who believes that there is no strong truth to science, only empirical adequacy. Van Fraassen states that scientific realists believe that the purpose of scientific theory construction is to give us a literally true story of what the world is like, so that when a scientific theory is accepted, it is believed to be true. The anti-realist believes that the aim of science can be well served without giving such a literally true story, and accepting a theory may not necessarily be committing to the truth of a theory. Van Fraassen believes that the language of science should be literally construed, but the theories do not have to be good to be true. He states that if a theory says that something exists, then it may be elaborated on what that something is, but it will not rule out existence. By stating that science should be literally construed, theories are able to explain other things without directly explaining them in the theory. Since the language of science is taken to be literal, good theories do not have to be taken to be true, nor do the entities involved in the theories have to be taken to be real.Van Fraassen believes that acceptance of theories involves more than belief, because we are never confronted with a complete theory. When a scientist accepts a theory he is basically put into a research program. By accepting a certain theory, the scientist will have to attempt to keep his beliefs separate from other equivalent theories. The scientist will not have to believe that the theory is true, only that it is the most adequate theory based on their beliefs of that theoretical category. The ac...
