Observation and Experiment in the Natural and Social SciencesMaria Carla Galavotti According to a long tradition in philosophy of science, a clear cut distinction can be traced between a context of discovery and a context of justification. This tradition dates back to the birth of the discipline in connection with the Circles of Vienna and Berlin, in the twenties and thirties of last century. Convicted that only the context of justification is pertinent to philosophy of science, logical empiricists identified its goal with the “rational reconstruction” of scientific knowledge, taken as the clarification of the logical structure of science, through an analysis of its language and methods. Stressing justification as the proper field of application of philosophy of science, logical empiricists intended to leave discovery out of its remit. The context of discovery was then discarded from philosophy of science and left to sociology, psychology and history. The distinction between context of discovery and context of justification goes hand in hand with the tenet that the theoretical side of science can – and should – be kept separate from its observational and experimental components. Further, the final, abstract formulation of theories should be analysed apart from the process behind it, resulting from a tangle of context-dependent factors. This conviction is reflected by the distinction between theoretical and observational sentences underpinning the Hempelian view of theories as nets, whose knots represent theoretical terms, floating on the plane of observation, to which it is anchored by rules of interpretation. |
Contents
PAOLO LEGRENZI Naïve Probability | 43 |
LÁSZLÓ SZABÓ From Theory to Experiments and Back Again | 56 |
REINHARD SELTENEmergence and Future of Experimental | 63 |
WENCESLAO GONZALEZ Rationality in Experimental | 71 |
ROBERTO SCAZZIERI Experiments Heuristics and Social | 85 |
GERD GIGERENZER Where Do New Ideas Come From? | 99 |
DAVID PAPINEAUComments on Gerd Gigerenzer 141 | 140 |
JEANNE PEIJNENBURG On the Concept of Discovery | 153 |
DONALD GILLIESSome Comments on Styles | 199 |
DAVID ATKINSON Experiments and Thought Experiments | 209 |
DANIEL ANDLER The Advantage of Theft over Honest Toil | 226 |
MICHAEL STÖLTZNER The Dynamics of Thought Experiments | 243 |
GIORA HON An Attempt at a Philosophy of Experiment | 259 |
RAFFAELLA CAMPANER An Attempt at a Philosophy | 285 |
COLIN HOWSON Bayesian Evidence | 301 |
IGOR DOUVEN On Bayesian Logic Comments on Colin Howson | 321 |
URSULA KLEIN Styles of Experimentation | 159 |
ARISTIDES BALTAS On French Concepts and Objects | 186 |
Other editions - View all
Observation and Experiment in the Natural and Social Sciences Maria Carla Galavotti Limited preview - 2006 |
Observation and Experiment in the Natural and Social Sciences Maria Carla Galavotti No preview available - 2014 |
Observation and Experiment in the Natural and Social Sciences Maria Carla Galavotti No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
2003 Kluwer Academic argument Aristotelian assumptions Atkinson Bacon Bayesian behavior bodies bounded rationality brain Cambridge causal century chemical chemistry chemists cognitive concepts conditionalisation context of discovery correlations empirical epistemic epistemological EPR thought experiment Essays example experimental analysis experimental cultures experimental economics experimental error experimental marks fact Galileo Gigerenzer gravitational heuristic hidden variable Howson human ibid ideas idols inductive inequalities inference inferential statistics interpretation ISBN justification Klein knowledge laboratory logic Logic Theorist M.C. Galavotti mathematical means mental models metaphor method methodological mind notion null hypothesis paper Philosophy of Science physical possible practice principle probabilistic probability probability axioms problem psychology quantum mechanics R.S. Cohen random variables real experiments reason scientists Selten semantics sentences Simon Social Sciences statistician strategies string theory structure Studies style of experimental Suppes Synthese Library theoretical thought experiment tools-to-theories heuristic University Press