Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T18:53:22.333Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Scientific Reasoning or Damage Control: Alternative Proposals for Reasoning with Inconsistent Representations of the World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2023

Joel M. Smith
Joel M. Smith*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Logical analyses of scientific representations of the world have usually focused on axiomatized or axiomatizable theories. As practiced, science seldom employs such theories. Rather, we find aggregations of claims, the logical relations of which are not as neat as philosophers of science might like them to be. Indeed, a common feature of such aggregations is the presence of certain “theoretical anomalies,” statements that are in some way incompatible with the remainder of the corpus. Huygens’ description of light as exhibiting an asymmetry with respect to its direction of propagation in polarization phenomena was such an anomaly because of its inconsistency with his account of light as longitudinal waves in a medium. (See Sabra 1981, pp. 226-227.) Although the occurrence of these anomalies is indicative of a problem that must be dealt with, inconsistent representations of the world are not without significant heuristic value.

Type
Part VIII. Formal Sciences
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1988 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1988 , 1988 , pp. 241 - 248
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1988

References

Arruda, A.I. (1980). “A Survey of Paraconsistent Logic.” Mathematical Logic in Latin America. Edited by Arruda, A.I., Chuaqui, R., and Da Costa, N.C.A. Amsterdam: North Holland.Google Scholar
Brown, B. (1985). Conflict in Science. University of Pittsburgh: Unpublished Dissertation.Google Scholar
Da Costa, N.C.A. (1974). “On the Theory of Inconsistent Formal Systems,” Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 15: pp. 497–510.10.1305/ndjfl/1093891487CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Einstein, A. (1906). “Zur Theorie der Lichterzeugung und Licht-absorption.” Annalen der Physik, 20: 199–206.10.1002/andp.19063250613CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harman, G. (1986). Change in View. Cambridge Massachusetts: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Jammer, M. (1965). The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Lakatos, I. (1970). “Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programs,” Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Edited by Lakatos, I. and Musgrave, A. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139171434CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakatos, I. (1971). “History of Science and Its Rational Reconstructions.” Boston Studies in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 8. Edited by Buck, R. and Cohen, R. Dordrecht: Reidel.Google Scholar
Poincare, H. (1912). “Conclusions Generales.” La Theorie du Rayonnement et les Quanta. Edited by Langevin, P. and de Broglie, M. Paris: Gauthier-Villars.Google Scholar
Priest, G. and Routley, R. (1984). “Paraconsistent Logics,” Studia Logica, 43: 3–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Provine, W.B. (1971). The Origins of Theoretical Population Genetics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rescher, N. and Brandom R. (1980). The Logic of Inconsistency. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Routley, R., Plumwood, V., Meyer, R., and Brady, R. (1982). Relevant Logics and Their Rivals. Atascadero, California: Ridgeview Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Sabra, A.I. (1981). Theories of Light. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Salmon, W. (1983). “Confirmation and Relevance.” Reprinted in The Concept of Evidence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schotch, P.K. and Jennings, R.E. (1980). “Inference and Necessity.” Journal of Philosophical Logic, 9: 327–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, J. (forthcoming). “Inconsistency and Scientific Reasoning.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science.Google Scholar