Dispositionalist accounts of scientific laws are currently at the forefront of discussions in the metaphysics of science. However, Mumford has presented such accounts with the following dilemma: if laws are to have a governing role, then they cannot be grounded in the relevant dispositions; if on the other hand, they are so grounded, then they cannot perform such a role. Mumford’s solution is drastic: to do away with laws as metaphysically substantive entities altogether. Dispositionalist accounts are also deficient in that (...) they either make no mention of the significant role of symmetries in science, or attempt to inappropriately eliminate this role. Here we shall attempt to motivate a structuralist view of laws by showing how it evades Mumford’s dilemma and accommodates the role of symmetry principles. In addition we shall consider how this view deals with a number of issues that dispositionalism finds problematic and indicate how the supposed necessity of laws and the explanation of relevant counterfactuals look from this structuralist perspective. (shrink)

I argue that pessimistic meta-induction (PMI) seems to point an ontological priority of the relations over the objects of the scientific theories of the kind suggested by French and Ladyman (French and Ladyman 2003). My strategy will involve a critical examination of epistemic structural realism (ESR) and historical case-study: the prediction of Zeeman’s effect in Lorentz’s theory of electron.

Berkeley’s philosophy of science is normally interpreted as some form of anti-realism, usually instrumentalism or constructive empiricism. In this paper we identify a different strand in his thought about the metaphysics of science, a strand which can be interpreted as a form of structural realism. We begin by picking out this strand in Berkeley’s thought and then look in some detail at different forms of structural realism. While the parallels are striking, the motivations are very different indeed: Berkeley was motivated (...) by an a priori philosophical metaphysical method whereas contemporary structural realists are motivated by a naturalistic method in metaphysics. The consequence is that Berkeley’s position is the more amenable to commonsense. (shrink)