Kareem Khalifa Department of Philosophy Middlebury College Kareem Khalifa Department of Philosophy Middlebury College Realism’s Unacceptable Explanation

Overview I.Background II.Unacceptable Explanations III.Realism’s Unacceptable Explanation

I. Background A.NMA B.Some terminology C.Frost-Arnold’s Big Picture

I.A. NMA P Q best explains P [probably] Q Unacceptable

I.B. Some Terminology

I.C. Frost-Arnold’s Argument

II. Unacceptable Explanations A.Examples B.Objections & Replies

II.A. Example: Entelechies Why do many organisms develop normally even if dismembered at an early stage of development? Because each species has an entelechy

II.A. Example: Just-So Evolutionary Stories Why does an organism have trait T? Because its ancestors faced selection pressures P that favor T.

II.B. Objections & Replies 1.Misdiagnosis objection 2.Ad Hoc objection 3.Self-Evidencing Objection

III. Realism’s Unacceptable Explanation A.Realism makes no new predictions B.Realism fails to unify disparate claims

III.B. No Unification 1.Brute conjunction 2.Unifying truth 3.2 nd Order IBE

Recap The NMA purports to offer a scientific explanation of science’s empirical success. However, scientific explanations make novel predictions or unify disparate claims. Frost-Arnold argues that scientific realism does neither. So, if he’s right, the NMA fails by its own standards.