Ronald Giere (1938 – 2020)[1] was an American philosopher of science who was an emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota.
His research focused on agent-based accounts of models and scientific representation, and on connections between naturalism and secularism.
In his book Scientific Perspectivism he developed a version of perspectival realism in which he argued that scientific descriptions are somewhat like colours, in that they capture only selected aspects of reality, and those aspects are not bits of the world seen as they are in themselves, but bits of the world seen from a distinctive human perspective.
In addition to the color example, Giere articulates his perspectivism by appeal to maps and to his own earlier and influential work on scientific models.
Maps represent the world, but the representations they provide are conventional, affected by interest, and never fully accurate or complete.