Argument from Psychological Difference: Why It Makes Sense to Be a Scientific Realist Than an Instrumentalist

Abstract

This paper contends that psychological factors of cognition and affect come into play in determining which philosophical framework, scientific realism (SR) or instrumentalism, makes more sense in the practice of science through history. The proposed Argument from Psychological Difference (APD) asserts that the scientific realist has a stronger impetus than the instrumentalist to pursue science that is anchored in existing underlying reality and cognizant of how the human person practices such science. The APD is threshed out in recognizing transcendence as manifested through history; in affirming the human quest for truth and certainty; in the stand that is taken in history when the science is more mature and certain. SR is especially made more comprehensive and coherent when it considers the interplay of the observable and unobservable aspects of reality and of how the human person is in the scheme of things. Scientific realism is the more superior stance compared to instrumentalism because, ultimately, it makes more meaningful sense by being grounded in existing material reality that has the power to move us rather than in convenient fictions that operate on utility.