General Philosophy of Science

Judul       : General Philosophy of Science
Penulis    : Theo A. F. Knipers
Format    : pdf
Bahasa    : English
Sinopsis  :

Scientists use concepts, principles and intuitions that are partly specific for their subject matter, but they also share part of them with colleagues working in different fields. Compare, for example, the chemical notion of the ‘valence’ of an atom with the notion of ‘confirmation’ of a hypothesis by certain evidence. An important task of ‘the philosophy of (the special science of) chemistry’ is the explication of the concept of ‘valence’. Similarly, an important task of ‘general philosophy of science’ is the explication of the concept of ‘confirmation’. In both cases it is evident that this only makes sense if one tries to do justice, as much as possible, to the actual use of these notions by scientists, without however following this use slavishly. That is, occasionally a philosopher may have good reasons for suggest-ing to scientists that they should deviate from a standard use. Frequently, this amounts to a plea for differentiation in order to stop debates at cross-purposes due to the conflation of different meanings. What has been said about concepts, also applies to principles and intuitions of scientists, which may or may not be paradoxical. Compare the subject specific ‘principle of the conservation of energy’ and the general intuition of ‘diminishing returns from repeated tests’. Both aren’t crystal clear, they need explication; of course, beginning with the explication of the concepts involved

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GENERAL PHILOSOPHY