Confirmation, Empirical Progress, and Truth Approximation

Essays in Debate with Theo Kuipers. Volume 1
Erscheinungsjahr 2005
ISBN: 978-90-420-1638-5
Verlag: Brill | Rodopi

Buch, Englisch, Band 83, 541 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 230 mm, Gewicht: 1034 g

Reihe: Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities / Monographs-in-Debate

This book is the first of two volumes devoted to the work of Theo Kuipers, a leading Dutch philosopher of science. Philosophers and scientists from all over the world, thirty seven in all, comment on Kuipers' philosophy, and each of their commentaries is followed by a reply from Kuipers. The present volume focuses on Kuipers' views on confirmation, empirical progress, and truth approximation, as laid down in his From Instrumentalism to Constructive Realism (Kluwer, 2000). In this book, Kuipers offered a synthesis of Carnap's and Hempel's confirmation theory on the one hand, and Popper's theory of truth approximation on the other. The key element of this synthesis is a sophisticated methodology, which enables the evaluation of theories in terms of their problems and successes (even if the theories are already falsified), and which also fits well with the claim that one theory is closer to the truth than another. Ilkka Niiniluoto, Patrick Maher, John Welch, Gerhard Schurz, Igor Douven, Bert Hamminga, David Miller, Johan van Benthem, Sjoerd Zwart, Thomas Mormann, Jesús Zamora Bonilla, Isabella Burger & Johannes Heidema, Joke Meheus, Hans Mooij, and Diderik Batens comment on these ideas of Kuipers, and many present their own account. The present book also contains a synopsis of From Instrumentalism to Constructive Realism. It can be read independently of the second volume of Essays in Debate with Theo Kuipers, which is devoted to Kuipers' Structures in Science (Kluwer, 2001).

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Festa, Roberto

Aliseda, Atocha

Peijnenburg, Jeanne

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaftsphilosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Roberto FESTA, Atocha ALISEDA, Jeanne PEIJENBURG: Introduction
Theo A.F. KUIPERS: The Threefold Evaluation of Theories: A Synopsis of From Instrumentalism to Constructive Realism. On Some Relations between Confirmation, Empirical Progress, and Truth Approximation (2000)
Confirmation and the HD Method
Patrick MAHER: Qualitative Confirmation and the Ravens Paradox
John R. WELCH: Gruesome Predicates
Gerhard SCHURZ: Bayesian H-D Confirmation and Structuralistic Truthlikeness: Discussion and Comparison with the Relevant-Element and the Content-Part Approach
Empirical Progress by Abduction and Induction
Atocha ALISEDA: Lacunae, Empirical Progress and Semantic Tableaux
Joke MEHEUS: Empirical Progress and Ampliative Adaptive Logics
Diderik BATENS: On a Logic of Induction
Truth Approximation by Abduction
Ilkka NIINILUOTO: Abduction and Truthlikeness
Igor DOUVEN: Empirical Equivalence, Explanatory Force, and the Inference to the Best Theory
Truth Approximation by Empirical and Nonempirical Means
Bert HAMMINGA: Constructive Realism and Scientific Progress
David MILLER: Beauty, a Road to the Truth?
Jesús P. ZAMORA BONILLA: Truthlikeness with a Human Face: On Some Connections between the Theory of Verisimilitude and the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge
Truthlikeness and Updating
Sjoerd D. ZWART: Updating Theories
Johan van BENTHEM: A Note on Modeling Theories
Refined Truth Approximation
Thomas MORMANN: Geometry of Logic and Truth Approximation
Isabella C. BURGER, Johannes HEIDEMA: For Better, for Worse: Comparative Orderings on States and Theories
Realism and Metaphors
J.J.A. MOOIJ: Metaphor and Metaphysical Realism
Roberto FESTA: On the Relations between (Neo-Classical) Philosophy of Science and Logic
Bibliography of Theo A.F. KUIPERS
Index of Names