The Ubiquity of Idealization and Its Logic

Abstract

There are three main goals that constitute the primary foci of this chapter. The first goal is to establish the groundwork of an argument for the claim that the presence of idealizing assumptions in physical theory is perfectly compatible with a suitably understood scientific realism. This goal will be pursued at length in this chapter, but the argument for this conclusion will not find its full presentation until Chapter 4. The second goal of the chapter will be to argue that idealizing theories ought to be treated as a special kind of counterfactual conditional. The third and final goal of the chapter will be to introduce a suitable logic for the regimentation of these sorts of idealizing claims and an account of their truth conditions.