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I will resume in this chapter the discussion set up in the Introductory Chapter by supplementing the thesis that hermeneutic realism is a realism about reality"s meaningful articulation within (scientific) practices with the ontological stipulation that human existence has a being in practices constantly and continuously constituting meaning projected upon possibilities. The position of hermeneutic realism ought to be discussed against the background of the "practice turn" in the realism debate. This position is part and parcel of this turn, and should be juxtaposed with other positions and doctrines emphasizing the role of practices. Actually, as the editors of a recent volume devoted to analyses of scientific practices argue, there is no single "practice turn" but rather "multiple practice trends" in the philosophy, sociology, and history of science. According to them, a practice trend (like New Experimentalism) emerges when one pays attention not only to particular classes of practices of inquiry but to fundamentally practical facets of science in general. This trend is a line of investigation that places primary emphasis on "the transformative-technical-pragmatic dimension of science, with its material, somatic, skillful and utilitarian aspects" (Soler et al. 2014, 9).

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-39289-9_2

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