Antirealism Will Not Save the DSM From Empirical Inadequacy

Philosophy of science has had a long-running debate about the status of such postulated entities. Two major positions have evolved: scientific realism and instrumentalism. Advocates of the former argue that these constructs truly exist. Instrumentalists are more modest and argue that such constructs should be treated as tools and evaluated on their... See more

Many scientific theories assume constructs that are not directly observable (muons, genetic drift) but whose existence is inferred. In mental health research, psychiatric diagnoses play such a role. We assume that constructs, such as schizophrenia or alcohol use disorder, exist but we can only observe the signs, symptoms, and course of illness that... See more

instrumentalism is “the view that theories are merely instruments for predicting observable phenomena or systematizing observation reports.”