id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentences	flesch	summary	cache	txt
work_4gyzu5a74bgcxk7i2m7lzrw7ny	Michela Massimi	Three Tales of Scientific Success	2016	12	.pdf	application/pdf	5334	358	58	Scientific success is the parameter by which realists claim to discern approximately true theories from in the real realist version (Kitcher 2001, 168–70), Fresnel's theory was successful—with Poisson's striking prediction of a bright spot—because of its successDavid Harker (2013, 89) calls a "comparative conception of success." Confirmation theory teaches us that the available evidence may support one hypothesis better than rival ones, and hence in our truth-conducive inferences we ought rephrasing Harker's view so that "predictions" are replaced by a posteriori judgments on theoretical insights that each scientific community at any particular time may deem worthy of retaining from theories of their predecessors. Standards for assessing scientific success (and hence the approximate truth of theories) are sensitive to historical contingencies of real communities in real historical periods. in 1822.4 More to the point for my story, Fresnel's appeal to parsimony and fruitfulness shows how standards of scientific success are contextual and perspectival;theyarenotsubspecieaeternitatis.Theirbeingsituatedinagivenhistorical and cultural context (e.g., the debate between corpuscularist optics and	./cache/work_4gyzu5a74bgcxk7i2m7lzrw7ny.pdf	./txt/work_4gyzu5a74bgcxk7i2m7lzrw7ny.txt