ABSTRACT. Indispensabilists contend that accepting scientific realism while rejecting mathematical realism involves a double standard. I refute this contention by developing an enhanced version of scientific realism, which I call interactive realism. It holds that interactively successful theories are typically approximately true, and that the interactive unobservable entities posited by them are likely to exist. It is immune to the pessimistic induction while mathematical realism is susceptible to it.

Keywords: indispensability argument; interactive realism; mathematical realism; pessimistic induction; scientific realism

How to cite: Park, Seungbae (2018). “Rejecting Mathematical Realism while Accepting Interactive Realism,” Analysis and Metaphysics 17: 7–21.

Received 15 September 2017 • Received in revised form 3 October 2017
Accepted 4 October 2017 • Available online 25 October 2017

doi:10.22381/AM1720181