Instrumentalism

The false idea that the sole purpose of scientific theories is to make predictions.

Exemplified by "shut up and calculate" in quantum physics. Instrumentalism abandons the search for explanations — the actual purpose of science. A theory that merely predicts without explaining is incomplete and hides the problems that remain to be solved.

Connections

• •Denies the importance of Explanation — reducing science to prediction
• •Ignores the Hard to Vary criterion for good explanations
• •Related to Phenomenology — mapping models to data without underlying explanation
• •A form of intellectual Pessimism — giving up on understanding
• •Opposed by Critical Rationalism — which insists on explanatory depth
• •Obscures problems that explanatory theories would reveal
• •Prevailing Conception is a related misconception about physics