Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T20:58:41.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Idealization, Explanation, and Confirmation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Ronald Laymon
Ronald Laymon*
Affiliation:
The Ohio State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Scriven, with his well-known bridge example, showed that explanations need not carry with them accurate or useful predictions. A bridge has collapsed, but there is no history of overload or natural shock. Metal samples taken near the break show severely reduced elastic capabilities of a sort usually associated with natural aging. Therefore, given that the bridge did fall, it fell because of this sort of metal fatigue. However, on the basis of current theoretical and measurement capabilities, it could not have been predicted that it would fall. (Scriven 1962, pp. 181-185).

The existence of explanations which lack true or even usefully approximate predictions is not restricted to complex situations in engineering. Nor are such explanations the exclusive property of the non-physical sciences. The existence of such explanations, I want to claim, is common in the physical sciences as well.

Type
Part XI. Explanation
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1980 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1980 , 1980 , pp. 336 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © 1980 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barr, W.F. (1971). “A Syntactic and Semantic Analysis of Idealizations in Science.” Philosophy of Science 38: 258–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barr, W.F. (1974). “A Pragmatic Analysis of Idealizations in Physics.” Philosophy of Science 41: 48–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duhem, Pierre. (1906). La theorie physique: son objet et sa structure. Paris: Chevalier & Riviere. (Translated by Wiener, Philip P. as The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954.)Google Scholar
Feyerabend, P. (1965). “Problems of Empiricism.” In Beyond the Edge of Certainty. (University of Pittsburgh Series in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 2.) Edited by Colodny, Robert. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Pages 145–260.Google Scholar
Glymour, Clark. (1980). Theory and Evidence. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Thomas. (1961). “The Function of Measurement in Modern Physical Science.” In Quantification. Edited by Woolf, Harry. New York: Bobbs-Merrill. Pages 31–63.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Thomas. (1970). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lakatos, Imre. (1970). “Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes.” In Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Edited by Lakatos, Imre and Musgrave, Alan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pages 91–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laymon, Ronald. (1977a). “The Michelson-Morley Experiment: Description Dependence on To-be-tested Theories.” In Motion and Time, Space and Matter. Edited by Machamer, P. and Turnbull, R. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Pages 436–464.Google Scholar
Laymon, Ronald. (1977b). “Feyerabend, Brownian Motion and the Hiddenness of Refuting Facts.” Philosophy of Science 44: 225–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laymon, Ronald. (1978a). “Newton's Advertised precision and His Refutation of the Received Laws of Refraction.” In Studies in Perception. Edited by Machamer, P. and Turnbull, R. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Pages 231–258.Google Scholar
Laymon, Ronald. (1978b). “Newton's Experimentum Crucis and the Logic of Idealization and Theory Refutation.” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 9: 51–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laymon, Ronald. (1978c). “Colin Howson (ed.) Method and Appraisal in the Physical Sciences.” (Review) Philosophy of Science 45: 318–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laymon, Ronald. (1979). “Newton's Bucket Experiment.” History of Philosophy 16: 399–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laymon, Ronald. (1980). “Independent Testability: The Michelson-Morley and Kennedy-Thorndike Experiments.” Philosophy of Science 47: 1–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, D.C. (1933). “The Ether-Drift Experiment and the Determination of the Absolute Motion of the Earth.” Reviews of Modern Physics 5: 204–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newton, Issac. (1959). The Correspondence, Volume I. Edited by Turnbull, H.W. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schwartz, R.J.(1978). “Idealization and Approximations in Physics.” Philosophy of Science 45: 595–603.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scriven, Michael. (1962). “Explanations, Predictions, and Laws.” In Scientific Explanation, Space, and Time, (Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Volume III). Edited by Feigl, Herbert and Maxwell, Grover. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Pages 170–230.Google Scholar
Shankland, R.S., McCuskey, S.W., Leone, S.W. and Kuerti, G. (1955). “New Analysis of the Interferometer Observations of Dayton C. Miller.” Reviews of Modern Physics 27: 167–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar