REFERENCE INVARIANCE AND TRUTHLIKENESS

A holistic account of the meaning of theoretical terms leads scientifi c realism into serious troubles. Alternative methods of reference fixi ng are needed by a realist who wishes to show how reference invariance is possible in spite of meaning variance. This paper argues that the similarity theory of truthlikeness and approximate truth, developed by logicians since the mid 1970s, helps to make precise the idea of char itable theoretical reference. Comparisons to the recent proposals by K itcher and Psillos are given. This argument helps to undermine the sce pticist meta-induction about theories, and thereby to reevaluate Lauda n's alleged confutation of scientific realism.