Combining Philosophers
Ideas for Stilpo, Robin F. Hendry and W.H. Newton-Smith
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5 ideas
1. Philosophy / G. Scientific Philosophy / 1. Aims of Science
3853
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For science to be rational, we must explain scientific change rationally [Newton-Smith]
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Full Idea:
We are only justified in regarding scientific practice as the very paradigm of rationality if we can justify the claim that scientific change is rationally explicable.
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From:
W.H. Newton-Smith (The Rationality of Science [1981], I.2)
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3859
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We do not wish merely to predict, we also want to explain [Newton-Smith]
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Full Idea:
We do not wish merely to predict, we also want to explain.
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From:
W.H. Newton-Smith (The Rationality of Science [1981], II.3)
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3870
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The real problem of science is how to choose between possible explanations [Newton-Smith]
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Full Idea:
Once we move beyond investigating correlations between observables the question of what does or should guide our choice between alternative explanatory accounts becomes problematic.
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From:
W.H. Newton-Smith (The Rationality of Science [1981], IX.2)
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1. Philosophy / G. Scientific Philosophy / 2. Positivism
3854
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Positivists hold that theoretical terms change, but observation terms don't [Newton-Smith]
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Full Idea:
For positivists it was taken that while theory change meant change in the meaning of theoretical terms, the meaning of observational terms was invariant under theory change.
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From:
W.H. Newton-Smith (The Rationality of Science [1981], I.4)
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3855
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Critics attack positivist division between theory and observation [Newton-Smith]
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Full Idea:
The critics of positivism attacked the conception of a dichotomy between theory and observation.
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From:
W.H. Newton-Smith (The Rationality of Science [1981], I.4)
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