scholarly journals Theoretical Virtues in Scientific Practice: An Empirical Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moti Mizrahi
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Theoretical Virtues

Constructivism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen M. Downes
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Underlying Structure ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Scientific Representations ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

Originally proposed by sociologists of science, constructivism or social constructivism is a view about the nature of scientific knowledge held by many philosophers of science. Constructivists maintain that scientific knowledge is made by scientists and not determined by the world. This makes constructivists antirealists. Constructivism here should not be confused with constructivism in mathematics or logic, although there are some similarities. Constructivism is more aptly compared with Berkeley’s idealism. Most constructivist research involves empirical study of a historical or a contemporary episode in science, with the aim of learning how scientists experiment and theorize. Constructivists try not to bias their case studies with presuppositions about how scientific research is directed. Thus their approach contrasts with approaches in philosophy of science that assume scientists are guided by a particular method. From their case studies, constructivists have concluded that scientific practice is not guided by any one set of methods. Thus constructivism is relativist or antirationalist. There are two familiar (and related) criticisms of constructivism. First, since constructivists are self-avowed relativists, some philosophers argue that constructivism fails for the same reasons that relativism fails. But many philosophers of science note that relativism can be characterized in various ways and that versions of relativism can be useful in the interpretation of science. Therefore, constructivism’s relativism does not by itself render it unacceptable. Second, constructivists are accused of believing that scientists literally ‘make the world’, in the way some make houses or cars. This is probably not the best way to understand constructivism. Rather, constructivism requires only the weaker thesis that scientific knowledge is ‘produced’ primarily by scientists and only to a lesser extent determined by fixed structures in the world. This interprets constructivism as a thesis about our access to the world via scientific representations. For example, constructivists claim that the way we represent the structure of DNA is a result of many interrelated scientific practices and is not dictated by some ultimate underlying structure of reality. Constructivist research provides important tools for epistemologists specializing in the study of scientific knowledge.

Virtues in Scientific Practice*

2021 ◽  
pp. 200-222
Author(s):  
Dana Tulodziecki
Keyword(s):  
History Of Science ◽  
Scientific Realism ◽  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Puerperal Fever ◽  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Scientific Theories ◽  
Theoretical Virtues ◽  
Empirical Level ◽  
History Of

This chapter relocates the debate about the theoretical virtues to the empirical level and argues that the question of whether the virtues (and what virtues, if any) have epistemic import is best answered empirically, through an examination of actual scientific theories and hypotheses in the history of science. As a concrete example of this approach, the chapter discusses a case study from the mid-nineteenth-century debate about the transmissibility of puerperal fever. It argues that this case shows that the virtues are at least sometimes epistemic, but also that neither scientific realists nor anti-realists get it quite right: the virtues, even if epistemic, are not necessarily truth-conducive, but neither are they merely pragmatic. It also argues that the discussion of puerperal fever shows that the virtue question, as it is currently featured in the scientific realism debate, ought to be reformulated. We should examine not just whether a given scientific theory has virtues or not, but rather how debates among competing theories, all of which have some virtues, get resolved.

Theoretical Virtues in Science

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Schindler
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Virtues

Archaeological Theory and Scientific Practice

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Jones
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Archaeological Theory

Scientific Practice and Ordinary Action

1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Practice

Individuals without jobs: An empirical study of job-seeking behavior and reemployment.

1996 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Connie R. Wanberg ◽  
John D. Watt ◽  
Deborah J. Rumsey
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Job Seeking ◽  
Seeking Behavior

Psychology: An empirical study of behavior.

1933 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick H. Lund
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study
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