Dortmund 2006 – scientific programme

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AKPHIL: Philosophie der Physik

AKPHIL 2: Quantengravitation und Teilchenphysik II

AKPHIL 2.3: Talk

Tuesday, March 28, 2006, 16:00–16:30, P1-01-306

SCIENTIFIC REALISM, UNDERDETERMINATION AND CONTEMPORARY PARTICLE PHYSICS — •Richard Dawid — Universität Wien

During the last thirty years, modern particle physics has produced a number of theoretical concepts like supersymmetry or string theory which haven’t yet found empirical confirmation but nevertheless enjoy considerable trust among their exponents. In order to understand this fact, it seems helpful to reconsider the principle of underdetermination of theory building by the available empirical data, henceforth to be called scientific underdetermination. The recent history of particle physics as well as some theoretical features of modern particle theories, in particular of string theory, suggest significant limitations to scientific underdetermination which play a crucial role for particle theorists’ trust in their empirically unconfirmed theories. Interestingly, the question of scientific underdetermination also arises in the scientific realism debate. The realist’s attempt to explain the success of science by the approximate truth of scientific theories faces the problem how to explain that science is so successful in choosing the approximately true theories. An answer may lie in the posit of limitations to scientific underdetermination. General questions of philosophy of science thus may be closely related to the specific problem of theory appraisal in modern particle physics.