Combining Texts
Ideas for
'The Elm and the Expert', 'Transworld Heir Lines' and 'Some Judgements of Perception'
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5 ideas
14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 3. Experiment
2454
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We can deliberately cause ourselves to have true thoughts - hence the value of experiments [Fodor]
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Full Idea:
A creature that knows what makes its thoughts true and what would cause it to have them, could therefore cause itself to have true thoughts. …This would explain why experimentation is so close to the heart of our cognitive style.
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From:
Jerry A. Fodor (The Elm and the Expert [1993], §4)
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2455
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Interrogation and experiment submit us to having beliefs caused [Fodor]
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Full Idea:
You can put yourself into a situation where you may be caused to believe that P. Putting a question to someone who is in the know is one species of this behaviour, and putting a question to Nature (an experiment) is another.
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From:
Jerry A. Fodor (The Elm and the Expert [1993], §4)
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2460
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Participation in an experiment requires agreement about what the outcome will mean [Fodor]
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Full Idea:
To be in the audience for an experiment you have to believe what the experimenter believes about what the outcome would mean, but not necessarily what the outcome will be.
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From:
Jerry A. Fodor (The Elm and the Expert [1993], §4)
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2461
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An experiment is a deliberate version of what informal thinking does all the time [Fodor]
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Full Idea:
Experimentation is an occasional and more or less self-conscious exercise in what informal thinking does all the time without thinking about it.
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From:
Jerry A. Fodor (The Elm and the Expert [1993], §4)
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14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 1. Scientific Theory
2458
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Theories are links in the causal chain between the environment and our beliefs [Fodor]
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Full Idea:
Theories function as links in the causal chains that run from environmental outcomes to the beliefs that they cause the inquirer to have.
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From:
Jerry A. Fodor (The Elm and the Expert [1993], §4)
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