Cristian Soto (Universidad de Chile), Diego Romero-Maltrana (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaíso)
We articulate a local form of selective realism in view of the shifting from classical to quantum electrodynamics. Section 1 briefly reviews the challenge to selective realism and the local response. Section 2 examines the selective realist strategy and its limits. Section 3 puts the local approach to work, demonstrating that we find reasons for defending both continuity and discontinuity claims regarding specific theoretical elements in the historical development of electrodynamics, be they terms referring to observable features of phenomena, mathematical structures, or ontological presuppositions. Section 4 critically examines the narrow construal of limiting-case strategies, whereas section 5 contends that we need not a fully coherent theoretical framework in order to account for the continuity from classical to quantum electrodynamics. Section 6 closes with a few morals concerning the prospects of local selective realism.
