Replacing recipe realism

Juha Saatsi

pp. 3233-3244

in: Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem (ed), New thinking about scientific realism, Synthese 194 (9), 2017.

Abstract

Many realist writings exemplify the spirit of ‘recipe realism’. Here I characterise recipe realism, challenge it, and propose replacing it with ‘exemplar realism’. This alternative understanding of realism is more piecemeal, robust, and better in tune with scientists’ own attitude towards their best theories, and thus to be preferred.