no miracles argument
E335390
The no miracles argument is a philosophical defense of scientific realism claiming that the success of science would be miraculous if its theories were not at least approximately true.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| no miracles argument canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3192707 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: no miracles argument Context triple: [Hilary Putnam, notableIdea, no miracles argument]
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A.
.no
.no is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Norway for use in its internet addresses.
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B.
No
No is the chemical symbol for nobelium, a synthetic radioactive element in the actinide series of the periodic table.
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C.
God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales
"God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales" is a humorous, irreverent memoir and essay collection by magician and entertainer Penn Jillette that explores atheism, skepticism, and personal freedom.
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D.
Religion Without Revelation
Religion Without Revelation is a 1927 book by biologist and humanist Julian Huxley that argues for a non-theistic, science-based approach to religious and ethical thought.
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E.
Counterfeit Miracles
Counterfeit Miracles is a theological work by B. B. Warfield that critically examines and challenges the authenticity of post-apostolic claims to miraculous gifts and phenomena within Christianity.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: no miracles argument Target entity description: The no miracles argument is a philosophical defense of scientific realism claiming that the success of science would be miraculous if its theories were not at least approximately true.
-
A.
.no
.no is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Norway for use in its internet addresses.
-
B.
No
No is the chemical symbol for nobelium, a synthetic radioactive element in the actinide series of the periodic table.
-
C.
God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales
"God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales" is a humorous, irreverent memoir and essay collection by magician and entertainer Penn Jillette that explores atheism, skepticism, and personal freedom.
-
D.
Religion Without Revelation
Religion Without Revelation is a 1927 book by biologist and humanist Julian Huxley that argues for a non-theistic, science-based approach to religious and ethical thought.
-
E.
Counterfeit Miracles
Counterfeit Miracles is a theological work by B. B. Warfield that critically examines and challenges the authenticity of post-apostolic claims to miraculous gifts and phenomena within Christianity.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
argument for scientific realism
ⓘ
inference to the best explanation ⓘ philosophical argument ⓘ |
| addresses |
explanatory success of scientific theories
ⓘ
predictive success of scientific theories ⓘ realism about unobservable entities ⓘ |
| associatedWith | Hilary Putnam ⓘ |
| conclusion | scientific theories are at least approximately true ⓘ |
| coreClaim | the predictive and technological success of science would be miraculous if scientific theories were not at least approximately true ⓘ |
| criticism |
it allegedly begs the question in favor of realism
ⓘ
it is argued to be undermined by the historical failure of many successful past theories ⓘ its appeal to the best explanation is challenged by anti-realists ⓘ |
| criticizedBy |
Bas van Fraassen
ⓘ
Larry Laudan ⓘ anti-realists ⓘ |
| debatedIn |
analytic philosophy
ⓘ
philosophy of physics ⓘ philosophy of science literature ⓘ |
| field |
epistemology
ⓘ
philosophy of science ⓘ |
| hasVariant |
entity-based no miracles argument
ⓘ
selective no miracles argument ⓘ |
| inferenceForm |
abductive reasoning
ⓘ
explanatory inference ⓘ |
| influenced |
contemporary defenses of scientific realism
ⓘ
entity realism ⓘ selective realism ⓘ |
| involves |
approximate truth of theories
ⓘ
explanatory virtues ⓘ meta-level reasoning about science ⓘ unobservable theoretical entities ⓘ |
| opposes |
constructive empiricism
ⓘ
instrumentalism ⓘ scientific anti-realism ⓘ |
| popularizedBy | Hilary Putnam ⓘ |
| premise |
science is highly successful in prediction and technological application
ⓘ
the best explanation of the success of science is that its theories are approximately true ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
approximate truth
ⓘ
inference to the best explanation ⓘ pessimistic meta-induction ⓘ scientific realism ⓘ truthlikeness ⓘ underdetermination of theory by data ⓘ |
| status | one of the most prominent arguments for scientific realism ⓘ |
| supports | scientific realism ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 20th century ⓘ |
| usedInDebate | realism vs anti-realism in philosophy of science ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: no miracles argument Description of subject: The no miracles argument is a philosophical defense of scientific realism claiming that the success of science would be miraculous if its theories were not at least approximately true.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.