Idealization and Indeterminacy

Abstract

The standard move against the claim that no scientific theory can secure determinacy of reference is to embrace structuralism and argue that indeterminacy of reference does not imply indeterminacy of truth conditions. To show that determinacy of truth conditions can be secured, one may insist on empirical or computational constraints that might eliminate the "unintended" interpretations that make a theory true. Idealization procedures in scientific practice indicate, however, that such interpretations are necessary to account for a range of natural phenomena. In my talk, I discuss the implications of this fact for semantics and modal ontology.