The Structure, Growth and Application of Scientific Knowledge: Reflections on Relevance and the Future of Philosophy of Science

Author(s):  
Ronald N. Giere

Author(s):  
Nataliya I. Kuznetsova ◽  

The article analyzes the problems of modern epistemology in the context of pre­senting the views and philosophical heritage of the famous Russian philosopher Mikhail Alexandrovich Rozov. The relevance of the theory of social relay devel­oped by him and the corresponding “wave” ontology, especially in the period of thematic, terminological and substantial transformations of modern epistemo­logy, is shown. The author carry out the idea that without solving the ontological and methodological problems of the empirical analysis of scientific knowledge, it is impossible to correctly investigate knowledge. The article describes in detail the logic of Rozov’s reasoning, and also demonstrates the scale of M.A. Rozov on the reforming of epistemology and philosophy of science, on the formulation of an urgent agenda, problems, goals and objectives of the study of knowledge. The bottom line is that understanding semiotic objects (scientific knowledge) as phenomena of social memory, which are reproduced according to direct or indi­rect (verbalized) patterns, opens a new world of social relay races. The broad ap­plicability of Rozov’s theory in various empirical contexts is demonstrated, which allows discussing both traditional and modern philosophical and method­ological problems of the natural and socio-humanitarian sciences, as well as in epistemology and philosophy of science.



2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liba Taub

Abstract In 1990, Deborah Jean Warner, a curator at the Smithsonian Institution, published her now-classic article ‘What is a scientific instrument, when did it become one, and why?’. These questions were prompted by practical curatorial considerations: what was she supposed to collect for her museum? Today, we are still considering questions of what we collect for the future, why, and how. These questions have elicited some new and perhaps surprising answers since the publication of Warner’s article, sometimes – but not only – as a reflection of changing technologies and laboratory practices, and also as a result of changes in those disciplines that study science, including history of science and philosophy of science. In focusing attention on meanings associated with scientific instrument collections, and thinking about what objects are identified as scientific instruments, I consider how definitions of instruments influence what is collected and preserved.



Author(s):  
Svetlana P. Vasil’eva ◽  
Lidia M. Dmitrieva

At the turn of the 20th–21st centuries there appeared a trend of appeal to the anthropocentric paradigm for scientific knowledge in the toponymic studies. In the previous period, the toponymic studies relied upon the properties of toponyms as language units at the semantic, structural, and grammatical levels. At the same time, the ethnocultural aspect of the geographic names manifesting the ethnocultural stereotypes for exploring the world, and, wider, for the worldview of both contemplating man and acting man remained outside the scope of linguistic studies. Rooted in the integrative approach to analysis of linguistic phenomena, the anthropocentrism principles determined a qualitatively new stage of research based on activating the cognitive structures of mental knowledge. Thus, the presented review shows that toponyms are an important source of ethnocultural information that can be extracted through cognitive modelling and linguistic and cultural interpretation within the framework of the anthropocentric paradigm. In the future, the applied methods of toponymic research can be extrapolated to other sources of linguistic and cultural information



2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (5) ◽  
pp. 1032-1036
Author(s):  
Serhii Ye. Ablamskyi ◽  
Vitalii V. Romaniuk ◽  
Ruslan P. Chycha ◽  
Viktoriia V. Ablamska

The aim of the study: 1) to determine the features of temporary access to documents containing information that may be a medical confidentiality; 2) to identify legislative gaps regarding the regulation of the measure of criminal proceedings; 3) to formulate proposals for improvement of legislation in the part of the investigated issue. Materials and methods: The legal basis for the protection of information that may be a medical confidentiality is provided. Legislative provisions have been identified and analyzed, which provide for particulars of access to documents containing information that may be a medical confidentiality. It is argued that the evidence collected in violation of the procedural order of the measure of criminal proceedings is inadmissible and therefore cannot be taken into account by the court in the future. Writing the article, the authors used both general and special methods of scientific knowledge, namely: formal-legal, formal-logical, comparative analysis and logical-normative. The complex application of these methods has made it possible to formulate science-based conclusions and proposals. Conclusions: Exemption of documents containing information that may constitute medical confidentiality should be done exclusively by temporary access to them. In order to eliminate the legislative gaps of the investigated issue, it is proposed to amend the current legislation accordingly.



Author(s):  
Curtis Forbes

The debate over scientific realism, simply put, is a debate over what we can and should believe about reality once we've critically assessed all the available arguments and empirical evidence. Thinking earnestly about the merits of scientific realism as a philosophical thesis requires navigating contentious historiographical issues, being familiar with the technical details of various scientific theories, and addressing disparate philosophical problems spanning aesthetics, metaphysics, epistemology, and beyond. This issue of Spontaneous Generations: A Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science aims to make participating in the scientific realism debate easier for both newcomers and veterans, collecting over twenty invited and peer-reviewed papers under the title "The Future of the Scientific Realism Debate: Contemporary Issues Concerning Scientific Realism."



2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-240
Author(s):  
Steven French ◽  
Michela Massimi


Author(s):  
Dominik Giese ◽  
Jonathan Joseph

This chapter evaluates critical realism, a term which refers to a philosophy of science connected to the broader approach of scientific realism. In contrast to other philosophies of science, such as positivism and post-positivism, critical realism presents an alternative view on the questions of what is ‘real’ and how one can generate scientific knowledge of the ‘real’. How one answers these questions has implications for how one studies science and society. The critical realist answer starts by prioritizing the ontological question over the epistemological one, by asking: What must the world be like for science to be possible? Critical realism holds the key ontological belief of scientific realism that there is a reality which exists independent of our knowledge and experience of it. Critical realists posit that reality is more complex, and made up of more than the directly observable. More specifically, critical realism understands reality as ‘stratified’ and composed of three ontological domains: the empirical, the actual, and the real. Here lies the basis for causation.



Author(s):  
William Fish

Everyone would agree that contemporary philosophical thinking and theorizing about perception should both be aware of, and consistent with, the findings of visual science. Yet despite this consensus, there is little discussion—and even less agreement—about how this should work in practice. This chapter proposes that we can gain useful insights by bringing some tools from the philosophy of science to bear on this question. Focusing on the disagreement between Burge and McDowell as to whether or not disjunctivism in the philosophy of perception is ‘directly at odds with scientific knowledge’ (Burge 2005, 29), the chapter suggests that interesting insights can be gained by seeing this debate through a Kuhnian lens—as a clash of paradigms (or, more strictly, Lakatosian research programmes)—and then investigate the methodological consequences that flow from this. It contends that looking at this debate through this lens not only sheds light on why it can seem so intractable, but also provides us with reassurance that this might be a good thing.



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