Pragmatism and the Objectivity of Scientific Knowledge

At the heart of this perspective is the idea that objectivity is not rooted in abstract truth, mental representations, sensory data, or the static identity of physical entities. Instead, it is based on the reproducibility of physical manipulation.

Action is the foundation of objectivity. Something is 'objective' when the material world consistently and predictably responds to a mastered physical action. Objectivity is proven by doing, not describing.

Reproducibility is neither a measure of usefulness (as in classical pragmatism) nor concerned with the existence of entities (as in the work of Hacking, for example). Here, reproducibility is a genuinely new concept in the history of philosophy, forming the cornerstone of philosophical reflection.

The concept of 'the same' in physics is identical to the concept of 'the same' in shoemaking; both are verified by bodily mastery of reproducible physical interventions. Prioritising the shoemaker's physical manipulation over the theoretical physicist's equations flips the hierarchy of knowledge on its head. This is a democratisation of objectivity.
.