L’oggettività nelle teorie scientifiche rispetto alle pratiche del “discorso dominante” in Foucault

Abstract

The correspondence theory of truth can be arranged in such a way as to contain aspects of a “molecular” holism, in which background knowledge is linked but kept distinct from the content of the single proposition. Within this perspective, a proposition can still be a “representation” of a fact, always approximate and renegotiable, which nonetheless highlights the structure of the state of affairs in order to also illuminate the molecular group of states of affairs, of finite number, connected to the fact. Theories describe or represent real aspects of the world, but these aspects can always be analyzed in more depth, and they are never definitive, similar to the different levels of reality as seen with a powerful microscope. Foucault’s ideas of “power of speech” and of “dominant speech” are analyzed to show that a vital tension between realism and relativism continuously fuels the debate on the nature of science.