A realist partner for Linda: confirming a theoretical hypothesis more than its observational sub-hypothesis, Theo A. F. Kuipers

Abstract It is argued that the conjunction effect has a disjunctive analog of strong
interest for the realism–antirealism debate. It is possible that a proper theory is more
confirmed than its (more probable) observational sub-theory and hence than the latter’s
disjunctive equivalent, i.e., the disjunction of all proper theories that are empirically
equivalent to the given one. This is illustrated by a toy model.