A Defense of Empirically Equivalent Theories and Theory Choice

A scientific theory doesn’t pop into existence out of nowhere. A community of researchers is involved. Previous theories, anomalies confronting the current running theory, and alternative hypotheses, must all be considered. Far from the view that empirical equivalence poses a worrisome underdeterministic threat to scientific rationality (and even scientific realism), I argue EE is part of the evolutionary nature of science. A fallibilistic outlook toward our theories and the endorsement of abductive inference as descriptive of the movements within science dissolves the problem of the empirical equivalence of scientific theories by evidence. Borrowing a bit from C.S. Peirce and Karl Popper, I will illustrate how both scientific rationality and scientific realism remain unscathed by the charge that two or more competing theories leads to deadly under-determination.