But idealist and theological claims aren’t the only kinds of statements that make no contact with the senses. There are also more straightforward claims, like “the couch is in the living room even when nobody’s there,” that can’t be confirmed directly. Statements like these, about the existence and persistence of material objects independent of perception, are realist claims—they’re statements about a real world that exists whether or not there are any humans around. These statements are fundamental to science. Yet some of the positivists, throwing the baby out with the bathwater, dismissed
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Hmm. Wrong turn
