Why do theories fail? the best argument for realism
pp. 165-175
in: Evandro Agazzi (ed), Varieties of scientific realism, Berlin, Springer, 2017Abstract
There are arguments for and against realism. None of them is conclusive, but some are better than others. Which one is the best argument for realism? According to some the best argument is the success of scientific theories. This is a mistake. The best argument is not the success, but the failure of realistic theories. First of all there are much more false theories than true ones. But it is not a question of quantities, but rather a question of logic: Since theories cannot be proven, it may happen that theories are confirmed although they are false. But if they are disproved they must be false. Thus the realist can explain why a theory fails (because the world is different from what the theory says). But the antirealist cannot explain the failure. Hence realism has more explanatory power than antirealism. That's why we should keep to realism.