Cover of Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science
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1. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 34 > Issue: 3
Thomas Nickles, Thomas Sturm Guest editors’ introduction
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2. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 34 > Issue: 3
Thomas Sturm Scientific innovation: A conceptual explication and a dilemma
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I offer an analysis of the concept of scientific innovation. When research is innovated, highly novel and useful elements of investigation begin to spread through a scientific community, resulting from a process which is neither due to blind chance nor to necessity, but to a minimal use of rationality. This, however, leads to tension between two claims: (1) scientific innovation can be explained rationally; (2) no existing account of rationality explains scientific innovation. There are good reasons to maintain (1) and (2), but it is difficult for both claims to be accepted simultaneously by a rational subject. In particular, I argue that neither standard nor bounded theories of rationality can deliver a satisfactory explanation of scientific innovations.
3. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 34 > Issue: 3
Sergio F. Martínez What is innovation?: New lessons from biology
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During the 19th century, evolutionary models of innovation followed a famous thesis of continuity, according to which methods and explanatory patterns of biology should have an important say in the social sciences. In the 20th century, this thesis was considered unacceptable as part of the sharp separation of biology from the social sciences. Recent advances in the biological sciences suggest a way in which a version of the thesis of continuity can be reinstated, to suggest new ways of explaining innovation in the social sciences. Key kinds of innovation can be explained in terms of the evolution of robust complex systems, interpreted as processes of path creation.
4. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 34 > Issue: 3
Thomas Nickles The crowbar model of method and its implications
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There is a rough, long-term tradeoff between rate of innovation and degree of strong realism in scientific practice, a point reflected in historically changing conceptions of method as they retreat from epistemological foundationism to a highly fallibilistic, modeling perspective. The successively more liberal, innovation-stimulating methods open up to investigation deep theoretical domains at the cost, in many cases, of moving away from strong realism as a likely outcome of research. The crowbar model of method highlights this tension, expressed as the crowbar compromise and the crowbar fallacy. The tools-to-theories heuristic, described and evaluated by Gigerenzer and colleagues, can be regarded as an attempt by some scientific realists to overcome this compromise. Instead, it is an instance of it. Nonetheless, in successful applications the crowbar model implies a modest, instrumental (nonrepresentational) realism.
5. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 34 > Issue: 3
David Casacuberta, Anna Estany Convergencia de experimento y teoría en los procesos de invención e innovación
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Este artículo parte del debate en filosofía de la ciencia entre la tradición teórica y la experimental, y muestra su relación con el estudio de los procesos de innovación e invención en ciencia, cruzando así los planteamientos de análisis más teóricos de la filosofía de la ciencia con cuestiones más relacionadas con la filosofía de la tecnología y la ciencia aplicada. De esta manera, analizamos la interrelación entre experimento y teoría en los procesos de invención e innovación y conectamos los campos de la ciencia teórica y la aplicada, mostrando la continuidad entre ambas. Así, podemos mostrar también cómo en ciencia hay siempre dependencia mutua de teoría y experimentación, y cómo esa dependencia es extrapolable también a los procesos de innovación e invención.Tomando como punto de partida el debate en torno a las tradiciones teóricas y experimentales, veremos hasta qué punto los argumentos que cuestionan las tradiciones teóricas y apuestan por las tradiciones experimentales encajan con los fenómenos de invención e innovación. El caso que vamos a tomar como referencia para aplicar este análisis es el de «aprendizaje automático», como una rama de los algoritmos computacionales diseñados para emular la inteligencia humana aprendiendo del entorno. Este campo es relevante pues, a pesar de su naturaleza eminentemente teórica —en substancia es matemática aplicada—, presenta toda una serie de características que lo hacen muy afín al análisis desde las tradiciones experimentales.
6. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 34 > Issue: 3
Charles Lenay Technical innovation in human science: Examples in cognitive technologies
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In order to show how technological innovation and scientific innovation are linked in the course of research in human science, I present an account of a series of innovations made in our laboratory (Distal Glove – Tactos system – Intertact server – Dialtact module). We will see how research on the technical constitution of cognitive and perceptual activities can be associated with a process of innovation. The technical devices present at each stage carry an interpretative framework that prepares the following stages. Devices which were initially developed for the purposes of performing experiments contributed both to scientific inventions and to developments with a practical and social finality.
articles
7. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 34 > Issue: 3
Christopher Viger, Carl Hoefer, Daniel Viger The philosopher’s paradox: How to make a coherent decision in the Newcomb Problem
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We offer a novel argument for one-boxing in Newcomb’s Problem. The intentional states of a rational person are psychologically coherent across time, and rational decisions are made against this backdrop. We compare this coherence constraint with a golf swing, which to be effective must include a follow-through after the ball is in flight. Decisions, like golf swings, are extended processes, and their coherence with other psychological states of a player in the Newcomb scenario links her choice with the way she is predicted in a common cause structure. As a result, the standard argument for two-boxing is mistaken.
8. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 34 > Issue: 3
Miguel Escribano Cabeza Jan Swammerdam y los límites del preformacionismo
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Desde una lectura organicista mostramos que la concepción de la ontogenia que desarrolla Jan Swammerdam a través de su idea de la metamorfosis nos permite revelar la existencia de una continuidad entre el epigenetismo de W. Harvey y el preformacionismo de G.W. Leibniz. La concepción moderna de la epigénesis (Harvey) y la preformación (Leibniz) no implica tanto un posicionamiento antagónico respecto al problema del origen del embrión cuanto un esfuerzo por desarrollar un mismo modelo de ontogenia frente a las alternativas mecanicistas o vitalistas. En línea con esta lectura, hacemos una valoración crítica de las diferentes interpretaciones preformacionistas de Swammerdam.
9. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 34 > Issue: 3
Omar García Zabaleta La construcción del DSM: genealogía de un producto sociopolítico
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El DSM, elaborado por la Asociación de Psiquiatría Americana (APA), es la clasificación de los trastornos mentales más relevante del ámbito académico y clínico. Se trata de un manual que ha ido cambiando con su contexto, pero sus modificaciones no siempre han respondido a avances en el conocimiento científico. El repaso histórico de sus sucesivas ediciones muestra su naturaleza sociopolítica, y que factores de tipo ideológico o político han tenido gran relevancia en su configuración. Estos factores ayudan a explicar las propiedades de la psiquiatría actual que el DSM-5 representa, y a comprender las fuertes críticas que se le dirigen.
10. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 34 > Issue: 3
Summary
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11. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 34 > Issue: 3
Contents of Volume 34
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