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shminux comments on What do professional philosophers believe, and why? - Less Wrong Discussion
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So, if a theory of pink unicorns was useful to construct an "accurate model of the universe" (presumably not including the part of the universe that is you and me discussing pink unicorns?) these imaginary creatures would be as real as imaginary numbers?
Sure! Another way of saying that: If we discovered pink unicorns on another planet they would be as real as imaginary numbers.
A lot of lifting is being done by "scientific" here. It's uncontroversial that scientific theories have to be about the real world in some sense, but it doesn't follow from that that every term mentioned in them successfully refers to something real.