Critical Notice

Abstract

There's a recurrent divide among philosophical views about science—those focused on practice vs those focused on metaphysics, assertions of pluralism vs assertions of realism, and accounts of how science's history could have gone otherwise vs accounts of how science achieves knowledge. Michela Massimi's Perspectival Realism (2022) is ultimately a bridging project, aiming to cross this divide. The project is to recruit resources from perspectivism, a kind of pluralism about science, to show how science achieves knowledge and, thus, to inform a scientific realism compatible with this pluralism. A bridging project like Massimi pursues is deeply appealing. This broad divide between a philosophical focus on the messy details of science and a philosophical focus on what science achieves recurs, I think, because philosophers are more or less united in our desire to accommodate both focuses. Massimi's Perspectival Realism positions itself to do justice to both focuses and ultimately transcend the divide. Along the way, it is incredibly expansive in the philosophical questions and philosophical work it engages with. The book is also rich with historical case studies, as well as artistic and literary references. For these reasons, my review will undoubtedly be partial and limited, reflecting my own philosophical interests, limitations, and blind spots. Indeed, this book is expansive and ambitious enough that it may need to be read perspectivally.