Two Styles of Reasoning in Scientific Practices: Experimental and Mathematical Traditions

International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 25 (3):255 - 278 (2011)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This article outlines a philosophy of science in practice that focuses on the engineering sciences. A methodological issue is that these practices seem to be divided by two different styles of scientific reasoning, namely, causal-mechanistic and mathematical reasoning. These styles are philosophically characterized by what Kuhn called ?disciplinary matrices?. Due to distinct metaphysical background pictures and/or distinct ideas of what counts as intelligible, they entail distinct ideas of the character of phenomena and what counts as a scientific explanation. It is argued that the two styles cannot be reduced to each other. At the same time, although they are incompatible, they must not be regarded as competing. Instead, they produce different kinds of epistemic results, which serve different kinds of epistemic functions. Moreover, some scientific breakthroughs essentially result from relating them. This view of complementary styles of scientific reasoning is supported by pluralism about metaphysical background pictures

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,221

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Reasoning in the social sciences.Merrilee H. Salmon - 1993 - Synthese 97 (2):249 - 267.
Pictures, Styles and Purposes.Dominic Lopes - 1992 - British Journal of Aesthetics 32 (4):330-341.
Thought styles: critical essays on good taste.Mary Douglas - 1996 - Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.
Diagrammatic models in the engineering sciences.Mieke Boon - 2008 - Foundations of Science 13 (2):127-142.
Legal Practices and the Reason of the Law.Kurt Nutting - 2002 - Argumentation 16 (1):111-133.
Kinds of thinking, styles of reasoning.Michael A. Peters - 2007 - Educational Philosophy and Theory 39 (4):350–363.
Ethics, ecology and development: Styles of ethics and styles of agriculture. [REVIEW]Charles V. Blatz - 1992 - Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 5 (1):59-85.

Analytics

Added to PP
2011-10-02

Downloads
72 (#206,541)

6 months
7 (#174,778)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Mieke Boon
University of Twente

Citations of this work

What is Scientific Progress? Lessons from Scientific Practice.Moti Mizrahi - 2013 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 44 (2):375-390.

Add more citations

References found in this work

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.Thomas S. Kuhn - 1962 - Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Edited by Ian Hacking.
How the laws of physics lie.Nancy Cartwright - 1983 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Reason, truth, and history.Hilary Putnam - 1981 - New York: Cambridge University Press.

View all 98 references / Add more references