"Scientific Objectivity: Realism, Pragmatism, and Resistance"
Scientific objectivity is often conceived in terms of resistance – the constraint or pushback furnished by a world of facts on scientific inquiry, thought, judgment, and discourse. I suggest that different conceptions of this are the main sticking point between realists and pragmatists about scientific knowledge. In short: they are both realists, but about different things; thus, they conceive of objectivity in terms of different sources of resistance. I argue that recent confusion about this is fueled by a failure to distinguish between two versions of pragmatism. Generically, pragmatism emphasizes practical implications of inquiry and belief for experience and action. On measured views of pragmatism, this emphasis reflects only a judgment about what is most important and/or edifying in the analysis of inquiry and belief, but resolute views go further, insisting that emphasizing the practical is the only coherent thing one can do in such analysis. I contend that while measured pragmatism is compatible with scientific realism, resolute pragmatism is not.
Anjan Chakravartty is a Professor at the University of Miami