On The Thought Of B.C.Van Fraassen's Anti-realism

There is a long historical debate between scientific realism and anti-realism. It lasts from ancient Greece and Middle Ages to 20th century, which demonstrates that the debates focus on some philosophical problems. It is worthy of paying attention to the debate between Einstein by the representative of relativity and Copenhagen school by the representative of quantum mechanics at the twentieth century. And these debates provide the theory background for the debate between scientific realism and anti-realism. So Van Fraassen's thought of anti-realism has found on the basic of absorbing philosophy research of quantum mechanics. The thesis analyzes the key issues of debate between the realism and anti-realism, gives a more comprehensive exposition of Van Fraassen's anti-realist thought, and makes a brief review of the theory and its influence.Van Fraassen's anti-realism is constructive empiricism, namely the unity of constructivism and empiricism. He argues that the theory is a kind of model complying with the objective world. The theoretical construction is not to guarantee a complete same with objective world but to comply with observable phenomenon. He also states that the scientific goal is recognition of observable objects or "saving phenomenon". Science makes us believe the empirically adequacy of theory. As long as some model of the theory describes relevant phenomenon correctly, then the purpose of "saving phenomenon" is achieved. For this the theory is empirically adequate, otherwise not. The anti-realism of B.C.Van Fraassen is also the unity of semantic analysis and pragmatics. His semantic analysis involves with relationship of theory and world in the theoretical module. According to him, the theoretical definition and theoretical hypothesis constitute the theory, and these two parts are identical with each other on the semantic structure, which determines the logical state space that put forward by specific theories. B.C.Van Fraassen argues that the explanation is totally practical. It is related to users instead of new correspondence between theories and facts. One answer to one question is determined by contextual factors. The scientific explanation is not pure but scientific application.The anti-realism of B.C.Van Fraassen has the characters of dialectical nature. constructive empiricism, semantics, and pragmatics. His theory is not only a subjective and objective dialectical unity but also an organic unity of semantics and pragmatics which reflects a dialectical thinking mode. The introduction of contextual theory makes it not limited in the tradition that philosophers discuss issues in light of relationship between theory and world, which embodies its unique thinking. The method of state space introduced in B.C.van Fraassen's thought brings the theoretical model open meaning, which embodies its scientific spirit of opening thought. However, there are also shortages in his thoughts, mainly in distinguishing experience statement from theoretical statement and empirically adequacy.