Download or read book The Completeness of Scientific Theories written by Martin Carrier and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Earlier in this century, many philosophers of science (for example, Rudolf Carnap) drew a fairly sharp distinction between theory and observation, between theoretical terms like 'mass' and 'electron', and observation terms like 'measures three meters in length' and 'is _2° Celsius'. By simply looking at our instruments we can ascertain what numbers our measurements yield. Creatures like mass are different: we determine mass by calculation; we never directly observe a mass. Nor an electron: this term is introduced in order to explain what we observe. This (once standard) distinction between theory and observation was eventually found to be wanting. First, if the distinction holds, it is difficult to see what can characterize the relationship between theory :md observation. How can theoretical terms explain that which is itself in no way theorized? The second point leads out of the first: are not the instruments that provide us with observational material themselves creatures of theory? Is it really possible to have an observation language that is entirely barren of theory? The theory-Iadenness of observation languages is now an accept ed feature of the logic of science. Many regard such dependence of observation on theory as a virtue. If our instruments of observation do not derive their meaning from theories, whence comes that meaning? Surely - in science - we have nothing else but theories to tell us what to try to observe.
Download or read book Testing Scientific Theories written by John Earman and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1983 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Testing Scientific Theories was first published in 1984. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. Since much of a scientist's work consists of constructing arguments to show how experiments and observation bear on a particular theory, the methodologies of theory testing and their philosophical underpinnings are of vital concern to philosophers of science. Confirmation of scientific theories is the topic of Clark Glymour's important book Theory and Evidence,published in 1980. His negative thesis is that the two most widely discussed accounts of the methodology of theory testing - hypothetico-deductivism and Bayesianism - are flawed. The issues Glymour raises and his alternative "bootstrapping" method provided the focus for a conference sponsored by the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science and for this book. As editor John Earman says in his preface, the papers presented in Testing Scientific Theories germinate so many new ideas that philosophers of science will reap the harvest for years to come. Topics covered include a discussion of Glymour's bootstrapping theory of confirmation, the Bayesian perspective and the problems of old evidence, evidence and explanation, historical case studies, alternative views on testing theories, and testing particular theories, including psychoanalytic hypotheses and hypotheses about the completeness of the fossil record.
Download or read book Completeness and Reduction in Algebraic Complexity Theory written by Peter Bürgisser and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-14 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a thorough and comprehensive treatment of the theory of NP-completeness in the framework of algebraic complexity theory. Coverage includes Valiant's algebraic theory of NP-completeness; interrelations with the classical theory as well as the Blum-Shub-Smale model of computation, questions of structural complexity; fast evaluation of representations of general linear groups; and complexity of immanants.
Download or read book Quantum Measure Theory written by J. Hamhalter and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-14 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first systematic treatment of measures on projection lattices of von Neumann algebras. It presents significant recent results in this field. One part is inspired by the Generalized Gleason Theorem on extending measures on the projection lattices of von Neumann algebras to linear functionals. Applications of this principle to various problems in quantum physics are considered (hidden variable problem, Wigner type theorems, decoherence functional, etc.). Another part of the monograph deals with a fascinating interplay of algebraic properties of the projection lattice with the continuity of measures (the analysis of Jauch-Piron states, independence conditions in quantum field theory, etc.). These results have no direct analogy in the standard measure and probability theory. On the theoretical physics side, they are instrumental in recovering technical assumptions of the axiomatics of quantum theories only by considering algebraic properties of finitely additive measures (states) on quantum propositions.
Download or read book Understanding Explanation and Scientific Knowledge written by Kareem Khalifa and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-05 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive exploration of the nature and value of understanding, addressing burgeoning debates in epistemology and philosophy of science.
Download or read book Theories of Scientific Method written by Robert Nola and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is it to be scientific? Is there such a thing as scientific method? And if so, how might such methods be justified? Robert Nola and Howard Sankey seek to provide answers to these fundamental questions in their exploration of the major recent theories of scientific method. Although for many scientists their understanding of method is something they just pick up in the course of being trained, Nola and Sankey argue that it is possible to be explicit about what this tacit understanding of method is, rather than leave it as some unfathomable mystery. They robustly defend the idea that there is such a thing as scientific method and show how this might be legitimated. This book begins with the question of what methodology might mean and explores the notions of values, rules and principles, before investigating how methodologists have sought to show that our scientific methods are rational. Part 2 of this book sets out some principles of inductive method and examines its alternatives including abduction, IBE, and hypothetico-deductivism. Part 3 introduces probabilistic modes of reasoning, particularly Bayesianism in its various guises, and shows how it is able to give an account of many of the values and rules of method. Part 4 considers the ideas of philosophers who have proposed distinctive theories of method such as Popper, Lakatos, Kuhn and Feyerabend and Part 5 continues this theme by considering philosophers who have proposed naturalised theories of method such as Quine, Laudan and Rescher. This book offers readers a comprehensive introduction to the idea of scientific method and a wide-ranging discussion of how historians of science, philosophers of science and scientists have grappled with the question over the last fifty years.
Download or read book Testing Scientific Theories written by John Earman and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1983 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible to scholars, students, researchers, and general readers. Rich with historical and cultural value, these works are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. The books offered through Minnesota Archive Editions are produced in limited quantities according to customer demand and are available through select distribution partners.
Download or read book General System Theory Perspectives in Philosophy and Approaches in Complex Systems written by Gianfranco Minati and published by MDPI. This book was released on 2018-07-09 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Second Generation General System Theory: Perspectives in Philosophy and Approaches in Complex Systems" that was published in Systems
Download or read book Game Theory Experience Rationality written by W. Leinfellner and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When von Neumann's and Morgenstern's Theory of Games and Economic Behavior appeared in 1944, one thought that a complete theory of strategic social behavior had appeared out of nowhere. However, game theory has, to this very day, remained a fast-growing assemblage of models which have gradually been united in a new social theory - a theory that is far from being completed even after recent advances in game theory, as evidenced by the work of the three Nobel Prize winners, John F. Nash, John C. Harsanyi, and Reinhard Selten. Two of them, Harsanyi and Selten, have contributed important articles to the present volume. This book leaves no doubt that the game-theoretical models are on the right track to becoming a respectable new theory, just like the great theories of the twentieth century originated from formerly separate models which merged in the course of decades. For social scientists, the age of great discover ies is not over. The recent advances of today's game theory surpass by far the results of traditional game theory. For example, modem game theory has a new empirical and social foundation, namely, societal experiences; this has changed its methods, its "rationality. " Morgenstern (I worked together with him for four years) dreamed of an encompassing theory of social behavior. With the inclusion of the concept of evolution in mathematical form, this dream will become true. Perhaps the new foundation will even lead to a new name, "conflict theory" instead of "game theory.
Download or read book The SAGE Encyclopedia of Theory in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics written by James Mattingly and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2022-09-21 with total page 1057 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The SAGE Encyclopedia of Theory is a landmark work that examines theory in general and the broad split between the "hard" and "soft" sciences, a split that is being re-examined as approaches to scientific questions become increasingly multidisciplinary.
Download or read book Reconsideration of Science and Technology II written by Liu Dachun and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-09-30 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In reviewing and reconsidering the intellectual history of scientism and antiscientism, the authors assess the process of reasoning and prejudices of these contrasting viewpoints, while discussing the repercussions of scientific hegemony and its contemporary criticism. As the second volume of a three-volume set that proposes to reconsider science and technology and explores how the philosophy of science and technology responds to an ever-changing world, this title focuses on ideological trends centering around scientism and anti-scientism since the 19th century. The six chapters look into the emergence of scientism, instrumental reason, scientific optimism, scientific pessimism, scientific crisis and irrationalism and finally the deconstruction of scientism. The authors provide insight into the connections and biases of these disparate views and critiques, explore the influences of the hegemony of science and contemporary critique of science and evaluate the value of postmodernism and deconstructivism. The volume will appeal to scholars and students interested in the philosophy of science and technology, the ideology of scientism and anti-scientism, modernism and postmodernism, Marxist philosophy and topics related to scientific culture.
Download or read book Metadebates on Science written by Gustaaf C. Cornelis and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-11 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do scientists approach science? Scientists, sociologists and philosophers were asked to write on this intriguing problem and to display their results at the International Congress `Einstein Meets Magritte'. The outcome of their effort can be found in this rather unique book, presenting all kinds of different views on science. Quantum mechanics is a discipline which deserves and receives special attention in this book, mainly because it is fascinating and, hence, appeals to the general public. This book not only contains articles on the introductory level, it also provides new insights and bold, even provocative proposals. That way, the reader gets acquainted with `science in the making', sitting in the front row. The contributions have been written for a broad interdisciplinary audience of scholars and students.
Download or read book The Secret Doctrine Complete written by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 1974 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the appearance of Theosophical literature in England, it has become customary to call its teachings “Esoteric Buddhism.” And, having become a habit—as an old proverb based on daily experience has it—“Error runs down an inclined plane, while Truth has to laboriously climb its way up hill.” Old truisms are often the wisest. The human mind can hardly remain entirely free from bias, and decisive opinions are often formed before a thorough examination of a subject from all its aspects has been made. This is said with reference to the prevailing double mistake (a) of limiting Theosophy to Buddhism; and (b) of confounding the tenets of the religious philosophy preached by Gautama, the Buddha, with the doctrines broadly outlined in Esoteric Buddhism. Any thing more erroneous than this could hardly be imagined. It has enabled our enemies to find an effective weapon against Theosophy, because, as an eminent Pâli scholar very pointedly expressed it, there was in the volume named “neither Esotericism nor Buddhism.” The esoteric truths, presented in Mr. Sinnett's work, ceased to be esoteric from the moment they were made public; nor did the book contain the religion of Buddha, but simply a few tenets from a hitherto hidden teaching, which are now explained and supplemented by many more in the present volumes. And even the latter, though giving out many fundamental tenets from the Secret Doctrine of the East, raise but a small corner of the dark veil. For no one, not even the greatest living Adept, would be permitted to, or could—even if he would—give out promiscuously to a mocking, unbelieving world that which has been so effectually concealed from it for long æons and ages. Esoteric Buddhism was an excellent work with a very unfortunate title, though it meant no more than does the title of this work, The Secret Doctrine. It proved unfortunate, because people are always in the habit of judging things by their appearance rather than by their meaning, and because the error has now become so universal, that even most of the Fellows of the Theosophical Society have fallen victims to the same misconception. From the first, however, protests were raised by Brâhmans and others against the title; and, in justice to myself, I must add that Esoteric Buddhism was presented to me as a completed volume, and that I was entirely unaware of the manner in which the author intended to spell the word “Budh-ism.”
Download or read book Causality I A Theory of Energy Time and Space written by Ilija Baruk?i? and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2008-11-07 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ---------- Volume 1 (August 21th, 2010) ---------- : This highly original book gives an exact insight into the philosophical, logical, mathematical and physical foundations of causality. Causality is designed to provide both, the new methodology for making causal inferences on the basis of (non-) experimental data and the underlying theory. The new mathematical tools for evaluating causal relationships from (non-) experimental data are presented in the simplest and most intelligible form. Causality is thus an excellent book for self study and a pragmatic help for researchers. Anyone who wishes to elucidate cause effect relationships from (non-) experimental data will find this book invaluable. The reader will enjoy to read and use this book. Finally, a unified mathematical and statistical model of causation is available.
Download or read book Consciousness as Complex Event written by Craig Delancey and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-09-09 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consciousness as Complex Event: Towards a New Physicalism provides a new approach to the study of consciousness. The author argues that what makes phenomenal experiences mysterious is that these experiences are extremely complex brain events. The text provides an accessible introduction to descriptive complexity (also known as Kolmogorov Complexity) and then applies this to show that the most influential arguments against physicalism about consciousness are unsound. The text also offers an accessible review of the current debates about consciousness and introduces a rigorous new conception of physicalism. It concludes with a positive program for the future study of phenomenal experience. It is readable and compact and will be of interest to philosophers and cognitive scientists, and of value to advanced students of philosophy. Key Features Provides a new approach to the study of consciousness, using information theory. Offers a valuable discussion of physicalism, of use in other disciplines. Contains an introduction to the main literature and arguments in the debate about consciousness. Includes an accessible overview of how to apply descriptive complexity to philosophical problems.
Download or read book Research Methodology written by Alexander M. Novikov and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2013-04-25 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Research Methodology: From Philosophy of Science to Research Design distinguishes itself from many other works devoted to research methodology and the philosophy of science in its integrated approach towards scientific research, which is regarded as the scientific project on all levels from philosophy of science to research design. This work studie
Download or read book Beyond Reduction written by Steven Horst and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-08-30 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary philosophers of mind tend to assume that the world of nature can be reduced to basic physics. Yet there are features of the mind consciousness, intentionality, normativity that do not seem to be reducible to physics or neuroscience. This explanatory gap between mind and brain has thus been a major cause of concern in recent philosophy of mind. Reductionists hold that, despite all appearances, the mind can be reduced to the brain. Eliminativists hold that it cannot, and that this implies that there is something illegitimate about the mentalistic vocabulary. Dualists hold that the mental is irreducible, and that this implies either a substance or a property dualism. Mysterian non-reductive physicalists hold that the mind is uniquely irreducible, perhaps due to some limitation of our self-understanding. In this book, Steven Horst argues that this whole conversation is based on assumptions left over from an outdated philosophy of science. While reductionism was part of the philosophical orthodoxy fifty years ago, it has been decisively rejected by philosophers of science over the past thirty years, and for good reason. True reductions are in fact exceedingly rare in the sciences, and the conviction that they were there to be found was an artifact of armchair assumptions of 17th century Rationalists and 20th century Logical Empiricists. The explanatory gaps between mind and brain are far from unique. In fact, in the sciences it is gaps all the way down.And if reductions are rare in even the physical sciences, there is little reason to expect them in the case of psychology. Horst argues that this calls for a complete re-thinking of the contemporary problematic in philosophy of mind. Reductionism, dualism, eliminativism and non-reductive materialism are each severely compromised by post-reductionist philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind is in need of a new paradigm. Horst suggests that such a paradigm might be found in Cognitive Pluralism: the view that human cognitive architecture constrains us to understand the world through a plurality of partial, idealized, and pragmatically-constrained models, each employing a particular representational system optimized for its own problem domain. Such an architecture can explain the disunities of knowledge, and is plausible on evolutionary grounds.
