Abstract
The aim of this paper is to examine the problem of the appraisal of guiding assumptions on the basis of historical evidence about Galileo’s Copernicanism. That is, I plan to determine whether this episode confirms or disconfirms (GA1.1) - (GA1.5). To be more exact, I shall be examining the evolution of Galileo’s attitude toward Copernicanism in order to ascertain whether the acceptability of a set of guiding assumptions is judged largely on the basis of: (GA1.1) empirical accuracy, (GA1.2) the success of its associated theories at solving problems, (GA1.3) the success of its associated theories at making novel predicions, (GA1.4) its ability to solve problems outside the domain of its initial success, and (GA1.5) its ability to make successful predictions using its central assumptions rather than assumptions invented for the purpose at hand. Such testing will be impossible to carry out without a number of clarifications, to which we now turn.
This paper was completed in 1986–1987, during the author’s sabbatical leave and tenure as Barrick Distinguished Scholar at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; this support is hereby gratefully acknowledged.
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Finocchiaro, M.A. (1988). Galileo’s Copernicanism and the Acceptability of Guiding Assumptions. In: Donovan, A., Laudan, L., Laudan, R. (eds) Scrutinizing Science. Synthese Library, vol 193. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2855-8_2
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