van Fraassen, Bas

"The phenomena are our most reliable guide to theory assessment."

"Scientific realism requires defending claims that go beyond empirical evidence."

"Good theories are empirically adequate and internally consistent."

"We must separate what science establishes from what we project onto science."

"Empirical adequacy is a sufficient goal for scientific inquiry."

"The interpretation of our best theories is philosophically underdetermined."

"Knowledge of the observable world is more certain than knowledge of the unobservable."

"Science succeeds by adapting our conceptual schemes to the phenomena."

"We should not confuse scientific success with proof of scientific truth."

"The relationship between language and reality is complex and indirect."

"Scientific theories are cognitive tools shaped by our interactions with nature."

"Empiricism is compatible with sophisticated philosophical analysis."

"We can rationally accept theories without believing in all their theoretical commitments."

"The phenomena constrain what we can intelligibly believe about reality."

"Science progresses by improving its empirical adequacy across domains."

"Metaphysical positions go beyond what physics can establish."

"Our best theories may be useful fictions rather than truths."

"The observable domain is structured by our categories and capacities."

"Scientific rationality requires judgment about what to believe and what to accept."

"We achieve understanding through theories that make phenomena intelligible."

"Belief and acceptance are distinct attitudes with different rational standards."

"The phenomena reveal structure that our theories attempt to capture."

"Science aims at theories that fit our experience, not necessarily at truth."

"We should be skeptical of claims that transcend empirical verification."

"Philosophy of science must take seriously the distinction between appearance and reality."

"Scientific knowledge grows through refined understanding of empirical constraints."

"We can have justified belief without certainty or absolute truth."

"The success of our theories is evidence for their empirical adequacy, not their truth."

"Science describes the order and structure of observable phenomena."

"Rational thought requires distinguishing between different kinds of cognitive commitment."