They were constructive realists — time, they sang, was on their side — but things change.
Or perhaps best summarized as "constructive realism," given that my realist friends will always doubt the possibility of any fundamental transformation of such a deeply competitive relationship.
A question that will be raised by any alert meaning-theorist, therefore, is the following: Might there not be some anti-realist (constructive, or intuitionistic) derivation, in Fregean spirit, of the basic laws of arithmetic by appeal to suitable meaning-constituting rules of inference that conform to the general requirements of an anti-realist theory of meaning?
So, continues the scientific realist, the constructive empiricist cannot admit the usefulness of explanatory power to the scientist without also regarding the scientist as taking her theories to be true.
Not good enough, retorts Human Rights Watch, along with other campaigning NGOs.It is tempting to dismiss this as another example of the old divide between political activists who favour protest and business realists who favour "constructive engagement", which has cropped up dozens of times not least during the debate over sanctions against apartheid South Africa.
With regard to explanation, the constructive empiricist recognizes that scientific realists typically attach an objective validity to requests for explanation (van Fraassen 1980, 13), but he does not grant that objective validity.
In insisting on an understanding of scientific theories as literally true, the constructive empiricist sides with the scientific realist against conventionalists, logical positivists, and instrumentalists.
The constructive empiricist can acknowledge that scientific realists also recognize that there is a pragmatic dimension to theory acceptance.
Scientific realists might point out that constructive empiricists do allow that explanatory power can count as a pragmatic virtue of a theory (van Fraassen 1980, 89).
The argument is also incompatible with the view of a constructive empiricist who, in the skeptical spirit of anti-realist views in general, rejects reasoning based on a principle of induction.
