Verificationism - Post-Positivist Verificationists - Arthur Fine and The Natural Ontological Attitude (1986)

Arthur Fine and The Natural Ontological Attitude (1986)

In 1986, Arthur Fine offered an important alternative to van Fraassen's constructive empiricism with what he decided to playfully entitle the Natural Ontological Attitude (NOA). Fine holds that scientific anti-realists like van Fraassen beg the question against scientific realists when they assume that in theory selection there do not exist reasons to select theories that go beyond what is needed to be empirically adequate. Fine argues that we can avoid this mistake by taking note of what antirealists and realists will both agree to: the reliability of our scientific theories. This recognition of common ground brings Fine to argue that instead of aiming at true scientific theories (as the realist does) or empirically adequate theories (as the constructive empiricist does), we should aim for scientific theories that are reliable for our purposes. Fine's position has an advantage over van Fraassen's constructive empiricism in that a NOAer has a ready-made explanation for why there is no reason to select theories that go beyond what is reliable for our purposes; namely, that such theories are irrelevant to our purposes. For this reason Fine is similar to the classical pragmatists from whom he takes inspiration.