Schoolbook Science as a Basis for Realism

Synopsis

(1) The theories and theses of natural science at the technical frontier are highly vulnerable. This vulnerability of our scientific estimates inheres in their generality and precision. Ordinary-life “knowledge”, on the other hand, manages to gain security by reducing its definiteness or informativeness. In consequence, however, the sort of “understanding” it provides is not altogether satisfactory. There are problems on both sides. Scientific knowledge is too vulnerable: everyday knowledge too vague. (2) To get information about reality that is in a substantial degree both scientifically informed and secure, we must fall back from frontier science to rudimentary “schoolbook science”. (3) A plausible scientific realism must be based on such “softened-up” popularized science rather than authentic, technical science at the frontier of research. This compromise position represented by “schoolbook science” provides for a viable form of science-indebted realism.