The intelligibility objection against underdetermination

Vol 16, No 1 (2012) • Principia: an international journal of epistemology

Autor: Rogério Passos Severo

Abstract:

One of the objections against the thesis of underdetermination of theories by observations is that it is unintelligible. Any two empirically equivalent theories — so the argument goes—are in principle intertranslatable, hence cannot count as rivals in any non-trivial sense. Against that objection, this paper shows that empirically equivalent theories may contain theoretical sentences that are not intertranslatable. Examples are drawn from a related discussion about incommensurability that shows that theoretical non-intertranslatability is possible.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5007/1808-1711.2012v16n1p121

Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/principia/article/view/1808-1711.2012v16n1p121/22775

Palavras-Chave: Empirical equivalence,underdetermination,; in

Principia: an international journal of epistemology

"PRINCIPIA
"Principia: an international journal of epistemology" was founded in 1997 and regularly publishes articles, discussions and review. The journal aims to publish original scholarly work especially in epistemology area , with an emphasis on material of general interest to academic philosophers. Originally published only in print version (ISSN: 1414-4247), in 2005 the journal began to be published also in online version (ISSN: 1808-1711). Since 1999 are published three issues per year: in April, August and December. Qualis CAPES: A2