Samuel Schindler, "Theoretical Virtues in Science: Discovering Reality Through Theory" (Cambridge UP, 2018)
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What is the central problem of theory choice that the episode introduces?
Hello and welcome to New Books and Philosophy, a podcast channel with the New Books Network. I'm Carrie Figdoor, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. And I'm co host of the channel along with Robert Talise, Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. Together, we bring you conversations with philosophers about their new books, drawing from a wide range of areas of contemporary philosophical inquiry. Today's interview is with Samuel Schindler, Associate Professor at the Center for Science Studies at Aarhus University in Denmark. His new book Theoretical Virtues in Science Uncovering Reality Through Theory is just out from Cambridge University Press. A fundamental problem in science and in philosophy of science is that of theory choice and
Scientists propose theories that to explain data, but And it's usually the case that more than one theory can do a job of explaining the same data. That's the basis of many controversies within science. But when two scientific theories can both explain the same data or are equally empirically adequate, what criteria do scientists use to choose between them? What makes makes one better than the other and gain more adherence within the relevant scientific community? even beyond empirical adequacy. And given that even very popular scientific theories can turn out to be wrong, how are these criteria for theory choice related to truth? Do scientists even aim at true theories, as realists hold? Or as anti realists hold, do they just care about the fact that the theories can explain what's observed?
And whether they're true or not is really not the issue. In his new book, Schindler lays out an extended case for the real position. Based on a close critical look at the main virtues that scientific theories are thought to aim for, besides empirical adequacy. such as simplicity, kind of coherence or ad non ad hocness, explanatory scope, and fruitfulness, right? Especially in sen in the sense of providing the means to make novel, successful predictions. There are others, um, but on s on Schindler's view, all of these extra empirical virtues are what he calls truth conducive or epistemic. That is, they're not just merely pragmatic means that make a theory easier to use. So for example, a simpler theory is also supposed to be more likely to be true.
And so if that's the case, then scientists are epistemically justified in choosing a simpler theory over an empirically adequate but more complicated rival. So the book is an excellent discussion of the theoretical virtues themselves, but also their roles in actual theory choices and their role in the anti realist realist debate about the nature of scientific theory and scientific commitments. Let's turn to the interview. Uh hello, Samuel Schindler. Welcome to New Books in Philosophy.
Hi, Carrie.
Um it's great to have you here and talk about your new book.
Yeah. Thanks for having me.
Bef before we before we get into the book itself, I'd like to start by getting giving re uh our listeners a little bit of information about, you know, how you came to philosophy and and your interest in in philosophy science and in particular, um, how you came to write this book.
All right. Um yeah, so I think my interest actually um was in philosophy and particular philosoph history and philosophy of science. Uh those um always kind of went together for me. А спакби Томас із Конзбук Де структура Сенці Філіволюці. Which I read as a nineteen year old, um And that really had an effect on me and then Uh but I was also at the s at the time interested in um in yeah, reading popular neuroscience and uh philosophical uh yeah, uh treatments of of of of neuroscientific results and then I uh decided to to study cognitive science, um, did a bachelor in that. Um But then I kind of rediscovered uh my my my um interest in h history and philosophy of science uh by taking some courses in the in the philosophy department there.
Um and uh then I knew this is you know, this is what I wanted to do.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the central problem of theory choice that the episode introduces?
0:07–9:41
2
How does Samuel Schindler describe the role of theoretical virtues like simplicity and scope in scientific theory choice?
9:41–17:31
3
Why does Schindler argue that these theoretical virtues are epistemic rather than merely pragmatic?
17:31–25:24
4
What is the ‘no‑virtue coincidence’ argument and how does it address the pessimistic meta‑induction?
25:24–32:08
5
How does the book connect the realism‑anti‑realism debate to the demarcation problem?
32:08–38:51
6
What is the significance of novel predictive success, and why does Schindler critique common accounts of it?
38:51–46:29
7
How do historical case studies like Watson‑Crick’s DNA model illustrate the epistemic force of theoretical virtues?
46:29–54:10
8
What future research directions does Schindler outline after the book’s arguments?
54:10–1:00:32
Speakers
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