Models and Methods in the Philosophy of Science: Selected EssaysThe thirty-one papers collected in this volume represent most of the arti cles that I have published in the philosophy of science and related founda tional areas of science since 1970. The present volume is a natural succes sor to Studies in the Methodology and Foundations of Science, a collection of my articles published in 1969 by Reidel (now a part of Kluwer). The articles are arranged under five main headings. Part I contains six articles on general methodology. The topics range from formal methods to the plurality of science. Part II contains six articles on causality and explanation. The emphasis is almost entirely on probabilistic approaches. Part III contains six articles on probability and measurement. The impor tance of representation theorems for both probability and measurement is stressed. Part IV contains five articles on the foundations of physics. The first three articles are concerned with action at a distance and space and time, the last two with quantum mechanics. Part V contains eight articles on the foundations of psychology. This is the longest part and the articles reflect my continuing strong interest in the nature of learning and perception. Within each part the articles are arranged chronologically. I turn now to a more detailed overview of the content. The first article of Part I concerns the role of formal methods in the philosophy of science. Here I discuss what is the new role for formal methods now that the imperialism of logical positivism has disappeared. |
Contents
THE ROLE OF FORMAL METHODS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE | 3 |
2 VARIETY OF FORMAL METHODS | 5 |
3 VARIETY OF OPEN PROBLEMS | 8 |
4 FINAL REMARK ON HISTORICAL AND FORMAL METHODS | 13 |
THE STUDY OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS THEORY AND METHODOLOGY | 15 |
1 THEORY | 16 |
2 METHODOLOGY | 21 |
LIMITATIONS OF THE AXIOMATIC METHOD IN ANCIENT GREEK MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES | 25 |
ARGUMENTS FOR RANDOMIZING | 213 |
2 COMMUNICATION | 218 |
3 CAUSAL INFERENCES | 220 |
4 COMPLEXITY | 223 |
PROPENSITY REPRESENTATIONS OF PROBABILITY | 225 |
1 PROPENSITY TO DECAY | 227 |
2 PROPENSITY TO RESPOND | 235 |
3 PROPENSITY FOR HEADS | 238 |
1 EUCLIDS OPTICS | 26 |
2 ARCHIMEDES ON THE EQUILIBRIUM OF PLANES | 27 |
3 PTOLEMYS ALMAGEST | 38 |
4 CONCLUDING REMARKS | 39 |
THE PLURALITY OF SCIENCE | 41 |
2 UNITY AND REDUCTIONISM | 43 |
3 THE SEARCH FOR CERTAINTY | 48 |
4 THE SEARCH FOR COMPLETENESS | 50 |
HEURISTICS AND THE AXIOMATIC METHOD | 55 |
2 HEURISTIC VERSUS NONHEURISTIC AXIOMS | 58 |
3 AXIOMATIC ANALYSIS OF QUALITATIVE DERIVATIONS | 62 |
4 CONCLUDING REMARK ON THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN HEURISTICS AND AXIOMATICS | 63 |
REPRESENTATION THEORY AND THE ANALYSIS OF STRUCTURE | 67 |
1 ISOMORPHISM OF MODELS | 70 |
2 REPRESENTATION THEOREMS | 73 |
3 INVARIANCE AND MEANINGFULNESS | 78 |
CAUSALITY AND EXPLANATION | 83 |
CAUSAL ANALYSIS OF HIDDEN VARIABLES | 85 |
1 DETERMINISTIC CAUSES | 87 |
3 EXCHANGEABILITY IN THE SPIN EXPERIMENTS | 89 |
4 PROBLEM OF MORE THAN TWO EXCHANGEABLE VARIABLES | 91 |
6 CAUSAL HIDDEN VARIABLES WITHOUT CONDITIONAL INDEPENDENCE | 92 |
SCIENTIFIC CAUSAL TALK | 95 |
2 SET THEORY IN SCIENCE | 96 |
3 LANGUAGE OF EVENTS | 98 |
4 INTENSIONALITY AND PROCEDURAL SEMANTICS | 100 |
5 APPENDIX | 101 |
EXPLAINING THE UNPREDICTABLE | 111 |
CONFLICTING INTUITIONS ABOUT CAUSALITY | 121 |
1 SIMPSONS PARADOX | 124 |
2 MACROSCOPIC DETERMINISM | 126 |
3 TYPES AND TOKENS | 128 |
4 PHYSICAL FLOW OF CAUSES | 131 |
5 COMMON CAUSES | 134 |
6 EXCHANGEABILITY | 138 |
WHEN ARE PROBABILISTIC EXPLANATIONS POSSIBLE? | 141 |
NONMARKOVIAN CAUSALITY IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES WITH SOME THEOREMS ON TRANSITIVITY | 149 |
1 TRANSITIVITY OF NONMARKOVIAN CAUSES | 151 |
2 NONMARKOVIAN LEARNING MODELS | 155 |
3 ECONOMETRICS | 157 |
PROBABILITY AND MEASUREMENT | 161 |
FINITE EQUALINTERVAL MEASUREMENT STRUCTURES | 163 |
1 EXTENSIVE MEASUREMENT | 164 |
2 DIFFERENCE MEASUREMENT | 166 |
3 BISECTION MEASUREMENT | 168 |
4 CONJOINT MEASUREMENT | 170 |
5 PROOFS | 172 |
THE MEASUREMENT OF BELIEF | 181 |
2 WEAKNESSES OF THE STANDARD THEORIES | 182 |
3 INEXACT MEASUREMENT | 189 |
4 COMPARISON WITH GEOMETRY | 196 |
5 FINAL REMARK | 200 |
THE LOGIC OF CLINICAL JUDGMENT BAYESIAN AND OTHER APPROACHES | 201 |
1 PROBABILITY | 202 |
2 EVALUATION OF CONSEQUENCES | 205 |
3 MODELS | 208 |
4 DATA ANALYSIS | 209 |
4 PROPENSITY FOR RANDOMNESS | 243 |
INDETERMINISM OR INSTABILITY DOES IT MATTER? | 247 |
2 HOW TO SAVE DETERMINISM | 250 |
3 CHAOS AND SYMBOLIC DYNAMICS | 251 |
4 THE TROUBLESOME CASE OF QUANTUM MECHANICS | 254 |
5 RANDOMNESS AS A LIMITING CASE OF UNSTABLE DETERMINISM | 255 |
PHYSICS | 259 |
DESCARTES AND THE PROBLEM OF ACTION AT A DISTANCE | 261 |
2 THE A PRIORI AND THE HYPOTHETICAL FOR DESCARTES | 263 |
3 CRITICAL REMARKS | 266 |
SOME OPEN PROBLEMS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPACE AND TIME | 271 |
1 GEOMETRY OF SPACE | 273 |
2 PHYSICAL SPACE AND SPACETIME | 278 |
ARISTOTLES CONCEPT OF MATTER AND ITS RELATION TO MODERN CONCEPTS OF MATTER | 289 |
1 CENTRAL FEATURES OF ARISTOTLES DOCTRINE | 290 |
2 MODERN SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS OF MATTER | 295 |
DESCARTES BOSCOVICH AND KANT | 298 |
4 SCIENTIFIC RECONSTRUCTION OF ARISTOTLES CONCEPT OF MATTER | 306 |
POPPERS ANALYSIS OF PROBABILITY IN QUANTUM MECHANICS | 311 |
2 QUANTUM MECHANICS AS A STATISTICAL THEORY | 320 |
PROBABILISTIC CAUSALITY IN QUANTUM MECHANICS | 327 |
2 SOME EXAMPLES | 329 |
3 STOCHASTIC EXTENSIONS OF QUANTUM MECHANICS | 331 |
4 LOCALITY | 333 |
PSYCHOLOGY | 339 |
FROM BEHAVIORISM TO NEOBEHAVIORISM | 341 |
REINFORCEMENT | 343 |
3 LEARNING PARTIAL RECURSIVE FUNCTIONS | 348 |
4 CHOOSING THE HIERARCHY OF PROBLEMS | 351 |
5 PROBLEMS OF PREDICTION | 354 |
LEARNING THEORY FOR PROBABILISTIC AUTOMATA AND REGISTER MACHINES WITH APPLICATIONS TO EDUCATIONAL RESEAR... | 357 |
2 APPLICATIONS | 365 |
IS VISUAL SPACE EUCLIDEAN? | 373 |
2 THE HIERARCHY OF GEOMETRIES | 378 |
3 EXPERIMENTAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL ANSWERS | 380 |
4 SOME REMARKS ON THE ISSUES | 390 |
DAVIDSONS VIEWS ON PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE | 395 |
CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN MATHEMATICAL LEARNING THEORY | 407 |
2 LEARNING THEORY FOR UNIVERSAL COMPUTATION | 422 |
ON DERIVING MODELS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES | 435 |
1 MEASUREMENT REPRESENTATIONS | 436 |
2 REGRESSIONTYPE MODELS | 439 |
3 NONMARKOVIAN OBSERVABLE MODELS WITH PROCESS ASSUMPTIONS | 440 |
4 MARKOV MODELS WITH UNOBSERVABLE THEORETICAL VARIABLES | 442 |
5 CONTINUOUS MODELS | 445 |
6 SOME GENERAL ISSUES | 447 |
THE PRINCIPLE OF INVARIANCE WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO PERCEPTION | 451 |
IN ORDINARY LANGUAGE | 453 |
2 GEOMETRY OF VISUAL SPACE | 462 |
CAN PSYCHOLOGICAL SOFTWARE BE REDUCED TO PHYSIOLOGICAL HARDWARE? | 471 |
2 GOALORIENTED BEHAVIOR | 474 |
3 COMPUTATIONAL IRREDUCIBILITY | 476 |
4 IRRELEVANCE OF PHYSICAL DETERMINISM | 479 |
483 | |
509 | |
Other editions - View all
Models and Methods in the Philosophy of Science: Selected Essays Patrick Suppes Limited preview - 2013 |
Models and Methods in the Philosophy of Science: Selected Essays Patrick Suppes No preview available - 2010 |
Models and Methods in the Philosophy of Science: Selected Essays Patrick Suppes No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
algebra analysis argument Aristotle's assumptions automata axiomatic method axioms Bayesian behavior binary relation bodies causal cellular automata classical classical mechanics common cause completely concept of matter construction defined definition derived Descartes detailed deterministic discussion distribution elementary empirical equation Euclidean geometry example experimental experiments explicit facie cause finite formal foundations framework function fundamental given hidden variable hypothesis ideas important intuitive isomorphism kind language LEMMA likelihood function Markov mathematical measurement motion natural observed particles perception phenomena philosophical philosophy of science physical possible postulates predict principle probabilistic probability problem proof properties psychology qualitative quantum mechanics random variables real numbers register machine reinforcement relation representation theorem response restricted sample satisfied scientific seems sense sequence simple standard standpoint statistical stimulus stimulus-response models stimulus-response theory structure Suppes theory tion transformation trial visual space weak ordering