Dear all,

our next speaker in the Philosophy of Science Colloquium organized by the Institute Vienna Circle is Kosmas Brousalis (IVC Fellow, University of Athens), who will give a talk on June 11, 4.45-6.15 pm. 

All are welcome!

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Philosophy of Science Colloquium TALK: Kosmas Brousalis (IVC Fellow, University of Athens)

Confronting Tensions in Epistemic Structural Realism: Insights from the Logical Positivist Tradition

Philosophy of Science Colloquium
The Institute Vienna Circle holds a Philosophy of Science Colloquium with talks by our present fellows.

Date: 11/06/2026

Time: 16h45

Venue: New Institute Building (NIG), Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien, HS 3C

Abstract:

Epistemic structural realism (ESR) is a moderate realist position according to which our knowledge of the unobservable world is limited to its "structure" rather than its "nature." This thesis is commonly explicated using Ramsey sentences and is thereby equated with the claim that, for any successful scientific theory, the most we can be realists about is the propositional content captured by its Ramsey sentence. ESR is typically motivated by two considerations: semantic and epistemological. On the one hand, it is taken to follow from a descriptivist Carnap–Lewis semantics of theoretical terms; on the other, it is presented as the only realist epistemological position capable of accommodating revolutionary theory change. In this talk, I argue that endorsing both considerations results in inconsistency. After clarifying the tension and outlining the desiderata for any adequate resolution, I propose a novel variant of ESR, which I call "Multiplicative ESR." Roughly speaking, this view counsels epistemic restraint regarding the prospects of veridically "visualizing" unobservable entities—that is, representing them using observational concepts rooted in our sensory experience of the macroscopic world. I then motivate Multiplicative ESR, explore its (possibly troubling) implications, and examine the relationship between key tenets of this view and themes in the logical positivist tradition.