A Critique of Putnam s Principle of the Bene t of Doubt

The Principle of the Bene t of Doubt dictates that whenever reasonably possible we interpret earlier day scientists as referring to entities posited by current science Putnam has presented the principle as supplementary to his Causal Theory of Reference in order to make this theory generally applicable to scienti c terms The present paper argues that the principle is of doubtful standing In particular it will be argued that the principle lacks a justi cation and indeed is unjusti able as it stands