Abstract:
Poincaré feared that the
ephemeral nature of scientific theories could be seen as amounting to
the "bankruptcy of science". His defense of scientific solvency has
been understood as a kind of realism, structural realism. I begin by
sorting out the history of this conception (Poincaré, Weyl,
Russell) and then move to a consideration of its current status. I
argue that recent versions of structural realism embody a reactionary,
methodological strategy that runs counter to common sense.