scholarly journals From Explanation to Understanding: Normativity Lost?

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henk W. de Regt
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Focus Of Attention ◽  
Scientific Understanding ◽  
Rhetorical Theory ◽  
Chemical Revolution ◽  
Normative Power ◽  
Contextual Theory ◽  
Psychological Dimensions

Abstract In recent years, scientific understanding has become a focus of attention in philosophy of science. Since understanding is typically associated with the pragmatic and psychological dimensions of explanation, shifting the focus from explanation to understanding may induce a shift from accounts that embody normative ideals to accounts that provide accurate descriptions of scientific practice. Not surprisingly, many ‘friends of understanding’ sympathize with a naturalistic approach to the philosophy of science. However, this raises the question of whether the proposed theories of understanding can still have normative power. In this paper I address this question by examining two theories of scientific understanding: Jan Faye’s pragmatic-rhetorical theory and my own contextual theory of scientific understanding. I argue that both theories leave room for normativity, despite their naturalistic tendencies. The normative power of my contextual theory is illustrated with a case study of the chemical revolution.

scholarly journals Simplicity of what? A case study from generative linguistics

Synthese ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Terzian ◽  
María Inés Corbalán
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Minimalist Program ◽  
The Other ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Generative Linguistics ◽  
To Come ◽  
The One

Abstract The Minimalist Program in generative linguistics is predicated on the idea that simplicity is a defining property of the human language faculty, on the one hand; on the other, a central aim of linguistic theorising. Worryingly, however, justifications for either claim are hard to come by in the literature. We sketch a proposal that would allow for both shortcomings to be addressed, and that furthermore honours the program’s declared commitment to naturalism. We begin by teasing apart and clarifying the different conceptions of simplicity underlying generative inquiry, in both ontological and theoretical capacities. We then trace a path towards a more robust justification for each type of simplicity principle, drawing on recent work in cognitive science and in philosophy of science, respectively. The resulting proposal hinges on the idea that simplicity is an evolved, virtuous cognitive bias—one that is a condition of our scientific understanding and, ultimately, of successful scientific practice. Finally, we make a case for why minimalists should take this proposal seriously, on the one hand; and for why generative linguistics would make for an interesting case study for philosophy of science, on the other.

A Contextual Theory of Scientific Understanding

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henk W. de Regt
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Realism ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Scientific Understanding ◽  
Contextual Theory ◽  
Historical Dynamics

This chapter presents a full-fledged pluralistic, contextual theory of scientific understanding that is built on the analysis of intelligibility offered in chapter 2. The basic idea of this contextual theory of understanding is captured by the Criterion for the Understanding of Phenomena, which is articulated in section 4.1. Subsequently, in sections 4.2 and 4.3, the theory is further developed in terms of criteria for intelligibility and an analysis of the role of conceptual tools, and is supported by examples from scientific practice. Section 4.4 elaborates on various aspects of the contextuality of scientific understanding: its historical dynamics, the role of intuitions, and the relation of the theory to existing pragmatic theories of explanation. The theory’s implications for the issues of reductionism and scientific realism are discussed in section 4.5, and the final section defends the contextual theory against the charge that it implies relativism.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henk W. de Regt
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Scientific Understanding ◽  
Actual Practice ◽  
General Description ◽  
Contextual Theory ◽  
Historical Variation ◽  
Scientific Achievements

The contextual theory of scientific understanding developed and defended in this book serves as a basis for specific philosophical theories of explanation that start from the assumption that explanations should give us understanding, and as a general description and explanation of the historical variation of criteria for understanding employed by scientists in actual practice. This concluding chapter reflects on the results of the investigation by addressing three questions. First, what is the scope of the contextual theory of scientific understanding? Is it restricted to the natural sciences, or does it apply more broadly? In this context, the theory’s relation to the debate about explanation versus understanding in the humanities is discussed briefly. Second, does the theory imply a relativist philosophy of science? Third, can it serve as a basis for normative appraisal of scientific achievements?

Causal Powers

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Causal Powers ◽  
Important Work ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Metaphysics Of Mind

This collection brings together new and important work by both emerging scholars and those who helped shape the field on the nature of causal powers, and the connections between causal powers and other phenomena within metaphysics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind. Contributors discuss how one who takes causal powers to be in some sense irreducible should think about laws of nature, scientific practice, causation, modality, space and time, persistence, and the metaphysics of mind.

scholarly journals Blended and more: instructors organize sensemaking opportunities for mathematical equations in different ways when teaching the same scientific phenomenon

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fang Fang Zhao ◽  
Linh Chau ◽  
Anita Schuchardt
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Understanding ◽  
Biological Phenomenon ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Mathematical Equations ◽  
Scientific Phenomenon ◽  
Student Problem ◽  
Mathematics And Science

Abstract Background Many students solving quantitative problems in science struggle to apply mathematical instruction they have received to novel problems. The few students who succeed often draw on both their mathematical understanding of the equation and their scientific understanding of the phenomenon. Understanding the sensemaking opportunities provided during instruction is necessary to develop strategies for improving student outcomes. However, few studies have examined the types of sensemaking opportunities provided during instruction of mathematical equations in science classrooms and whether they are organized in ways that facilitate integration of mathematical and scientific understanding. This study uses a multiple case study approach to examine the sensemaking opportunities provided by four different instructors when teaching the same biological phenomenon, population growth. Two questions are addressed: (1) What types of sensemaking opportunities are provided by instructors, and (2) How are those sensemaking opportunities organized? The Sci-Math Sensemaking Framework, previously developed by the authors, was used to identify the types of sensemaking. Types and organization of sensemaking opportunities were compared across the four instructors. Results The instructors provided different opportunities for sensemaking of equations, even though they were covering the same scientific phenomenon. Sensemaking opportunities were organized in three ways, blended (previously described in studies of student problem solving as integration of mathematics and science resources), and two novel patterns, coordinated and adjacent. In coordinated sensemaking, two types of sensemaking in the same dimension (either mathematics or science) are explicitly connected. In adjacent sensemaking, two different sensemaking opportunities are provided within the same activity but not explicitly connected. Adjacent sensemaking was observed in three instructors’ lessons, but only two instructors provided opportunities for students to engage in blended sensemaking. Conclusions Instructors provide different types of sensemaking opportunities when teaching the same biological phenomenon, making different resources available to students. The organization of sensemaking also differed with only two instructors providing blended sensemaking opportunities. This result may explain why few students engage in the successful strategy of integrating mathematics and science resources when solving quantitative problems. Documentation of these instructional differences in types and organization of sensemaking provides guidance for future studies investigating the effect of instruction on student sensemaking.

Pragmatic patterns in Bram Stoker’s Dracula

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Stubbs
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Prose Fiction ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Influential Book ◽  
Linguistic Methods ◽  
Literary Linguistics

Abstract In an influential book on literary linguistics, first published in 1981 and revised in 2007, Geoffrey Leech and his colleague Mick Short discuss linguistic methods of analysing long texts of prose fiction. This article develops their arguments in two ways: (1) by relating them to classic puzzles in the philosophy of science; and (2) by illustrating them with a computer-assisted study of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. This case study shows that software can identify a linguistic feature of the novel which is central to its major themes, but which is unlikely to be consciously noticed by human readers. Quantitative data on the novel show that it contains a large number of negatives. Their function is often to deny something which would normally be expected, and therefore to express the protagonists’ distrust of their own senses in the extraordinary world in which they find themselves.

scholarly journals Scientific Practice and the Epistemology of Governing Laws

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
TYLER HILDEBRAND
Keyword(s):  
British Journal ◽  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Natural Properties ◽  
Fundamental Properties ◽  
Epistemic Access ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article is concerned with the relationship between scientific practice and the metaphysics of laws of nature and natural properties. I begin by examining an argument by Michael Townsen Hicks and Jonathan Schaffer (‘Derivative Properties in Fundamental Laws,’ British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 2017) that an important feature of scientific practice—namely, that scientists sometimes invoke non-fundamental properties in fundamental laws—is incompatible with metaphysical theories according to which laws govern. I respond to their argument by developing an epistemology for governing laws that is grounded in scientific practice. This epistemology is of general interest for non-Humean theories of laws, for it helps to explain our epistemic access to non-Humean theoretical entities such as governing laws or fundamental powers.

scholarly journals Design for learning – a case study of blended learning in a science unit

F1000Research ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 898
Author(s):  
Roslyn Gleadow ◽  
Barbara Macfarlan
Keyword(s):  
Blended Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Design For Learning ◽  
Learning Management

Making material available through learning management systems is standard practice in most universities, but this is generally seen as an adjunct to the ‘real’ teaching, that takes place in face-to-face classes. Lecture attendance is poor, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to engage students, both in the material being taught and campus life. This paper describes the redevelopment of a large course in scientific practice and communication that is compulsory for all science students studying at our Melbourne and Malaysian campuses, or by distance education. Working with an educational designer, a blended learning methodology was developed, converting the environment provided by the learning management system into a teaching space, rather than a filing system. To ensure focus, topics are clustered into themes with a ‘question of the week’, a pre-class stimulus and follow up activities. The content of the course did not change, but by restructuring the delivery using educationally relevant design techniques, the content was contextualised resulting in an integrated learning experience. Students are more engaged intellectually, and lecture attendance has improved. The approach we describe here is a simple and effective approach to bringing this university’s teaching and learning into the 21st century.

scholarly journals The recipes of Philosophy of Science: Characterizing the semantic structure of corpora by means of topic associative rules

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. e0242353
Author(s):  
Christophe Malaterre ◽  
Jean-François Chartier ◽  
Francis Lareau
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Full Text ◽  
Topic Modeling ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Language Generation ◽  
Topological Features ◽  
Text Content ◽  
F Measure

Scientific articles have semantic contents that are usually quite specific to their disciplinary origins. To characterize such semantic contents, topic-modeling algorithms make it possible to identify topics that run throughout corpora. However, they remain limited when it comes to investigating the extent to which topics are jointly used together in specific documents and form particular associative patterns. Here, we propose to characterize such patterns through the identification of “topic associative rules” that describe how topics are associated within given sets of documents. As a case study, we use a corpus from a subfield of the humanities—the philosophy of science—consisting of the complete full-text content of one of its main journals: Philosophy of Science. On the basis of a pre-existing topic modeling, we develop a methodology with which we infer a set of 96 topic associative rules that characterize specific types of articles depending on how these articles combine topics in peculiar patterns. Such rules offer a finer-grained window onto the semantic content of the corpus and can be interpreted as “topical recipes” for distinct types of philosophy of science articles. Examining rule networks and rule predictive success for different article types, we find a positive correlation between topological features of rule networks (connectivity) and the reliability of rule predictions (as summarized by the F-measure). Topic associative rules thereby not only contribute to characterizing the semantic contents of corpora at a finer granularity than topic modeling, but may also help to classify documents or identify document types, for instance to improve natural language generation processes.

scholarly journals Is Science Eliminating Ordinary Talk?

1970 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-41
Author(s):  
Louis Caruana
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Science Philosophy ◽  
Actual Operation ◽  
Theories Of Meaning ◽  
Methodology Of Science ◽  
Broad Overview

Discussions dealing with natural science, philosophy and common sense are bound to draw on long-standing debates dealing with realism, methodology of science, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, epistemology, theories of meaning, and other topics. Instead of presenting a broad overview of these main trends, which will necessarily be superficial, I will do a kind of case study. The aim is to present just one particular debate which is of relevance to current research. The presentation is meant to give a taste of how these various long-standing debates are brought to bear on a specific issue. In this way, the very practice of engaging in a particular area of philosophy of science will serve as a platform from where the major areas can be seen in actual operation. The paper has four sections: the nature of ordinary talk; the ontological implications of this; the recently proposed account of the mental; an evaluation.

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