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Interpretation, Constraint, and the Prospects of Scientific Realism
I explore the interaction between theory-based interpretations of scientific evidence and constraints on theories provided by that evidence. Interpretation is often viewed as a source of error and a reason for scepticism about scientific results. But, I argue, while interpretation does generate epistemic risk, it also points to new sources of evidence that can constrain our theories. This is especially clear in the development of instrumentation that increases the range of our interactions with nature. While the design of such instruments and the interpretation of their outputs are deeply dependent on theory-based interpretations, these outputs can still challenge those very theories. At the same time, theory-guided instrumentation provides us access to aspects of nature that we cannot study with our unaided senses. This access allows us to extend the range of evidence that we collect, and thus increases the constraints on our theories. As a result, theory-guided evidence collection has a positive impact on the prospects of scientific realism since these increasing constraints on our theories provide our only reason for thinking that we may be approaching the development of true theories.

Harold Brown served as U.S. secretary of defense when the Soviet Union posed an existential threat with superior conventional force capability and a daunting nuclear weapons arsenal. No one could have been better suited to deter the Soviets during that most dangerous period in the Cold War. A physicist, Brown had previously led Livermore Laboratory and its development of the Polaris missile warhead. By age 33 he was director of Defense Research and Engineering, and he later served as secretary of the U.S. Air Force early in the Vietnam War. In the Carter administration, Brown re

Die frühere Us-Verteidigungsminister analysiert zunächst die Determinanten der zukünftigen Entwicklung (verstanden als Chancen für einen grundlegenden Wandel) der amerikanisch-sowjetischen Beziehungen. Hinsichtlich der Sowjetunion wird die unsichere Zukunft des Gorbatschowschen Perestroika-Reformkurses betont, im Hinblick auf die USA wird auf die relative Schwächung ihrer militärischen Supermachtposition und ihres weltwirtschaftlichen und weltpolitischen Gewichts verwiesen. Ein Wandel der Politik der USA gegenüber der Sowjetunion sollte nach Meigung des Verfassers von folgenden Kriterien abhängig gemacht werden: beim Technologietransfer von den westlichen Sicherheitsinteressen; bei den Wirtschaftsbeziehungen vom sowjetischen Verhalten hinsichtlich der Rüstungskontrolle und der Verhinderung eines Nuklearkriegs, in den (latenten) internationalen Konfliktregionen sowie in der Frage der Menschenrechte. (BIOst-Klk)