Download or read book Counterfactuals and Scientific Realism written by Michael J. Shaffer and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-08-13 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author attempts to show that scientific realism is compatible with the presence of idealization in the sciences. His main contention is that idealized theories can be treated as counterfactuals about how things are in worlds that are similar to but simpler than the actual world.