About this topic
Summary What makes an explanatory hypothesis, or a theory, a good one? How do scientists decide the explanatory merits of alternative research programs, each appearing equally able to account for known facts? How, more generally, does scientific theory change proceed? For instance, are traits of objectivity, and more specific theoretical virtues such as "empirical adequacy," "logical consistency," "simplicity," "fruitfulness," and "robustness," etc. the same in all scientific fields, and do they always or regularly provide the same balance of judgment? Or do the differing objects and methods of the natural vis-a-vis the social sciences lead them to assess the merits of research programs against different theory virtues? Some of these questions have been highly debated extending back to the 2nd-half of the twentieth century, when the weighing of various theory virtues ("confirmation holism") was proposed as an inevitable implication of the  logical underdetermination of theories by the facts which they purport to explain ("the underdetermination problem").These are only some of the questions that working scientists often face, and that philosophers of science have discussed along with further entanglements of science and values. 
Key works The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory, Klein 1954 is still often read for his holistic account of theory confirmation and change in physics. When challenges began to accrue to logical empiricism in the 1950's and after, both Thomas Kuhn (1962) and W.V.O. Quine (with J.S. Ullian (1978)) explicitly discussed theory virtues, or "cognitive values," informed by their different understandings of the implications of confirmation holism. Primarily, discussion of theoretical virtues is concerned with assessment and selection of theories on the basis of scientific evidence, but objectivity, value judgment, and theory choice, Kuhn 1977” is a fascinating short entry into questions that made his The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn 1962 so controversial. Imre Lakatos (1970) offered a moderately historicist alternative to the famous Popper-Kuhn debate about theory change, an alternative claiming that scientific theories are not best treated as timeless hypotheses, but rather as ongoing "research programmes" that reveal themselves as progressive or degenerative only over time, by their track-record of problem-solving. Lakatos therefore drew further attention to diachronic theory virtues, as more recently did Ernest McMullin, in "The Virtues of a Good Theory" (2009). But other philosophers such as Bas van Fraassen (1980) favor the synchronic theory virtues of "empirical adequacy" and "logical coherence") as the only one's that are genuine epistemic, or truth-indicative. While Lakatos and Larry Laudan (2004) still defended a sharp distinction between epistemic and social values, concerns with theory "virtues" and cognitive "values" also highlight broader questions of entanglements of science and values. These debates become a test-case for Richard Rudner's (1953) claim that the scientist qua scientist makes value judgments. Recent work challenging the cognitive/non-cognitive value distinction and an associated value-free account of scientific objectivity include the work of numerous feminist philosophers of science, including Helen Longino (1995) and Kristen Intemann (2005). Longino challenges both sides of that assumed dichotomy, arguing negatively that the traditional theory virtues cannot always be considered purely cognitive, and positively that social values often play a healthy or supportive (and not merely an objectivity-undermining) role in scientific practice. "The Value of Cognitive Values" Douglas 2013 and other works provide alternative taxonomies of the theory virtues, connecting them with concerns about scientific objectivity, on the one hand, and with broader concerns about the proper role of different kinds of values in decision-making with respect to science/technology policy, on the other. 
Introductions Douglas, Heather. 2014. "The Value of Cognitive Values," Philosophy of Science 80.5 (2014): 796–806. Intemann, Kristen. 2005. "Feminism, Underdetermination, and Values in Science," Philosophy of Science, 67(5), 1001–1012.

Levi, Isaac. 1995. "Cognitive Value and the Advancement of Science,"  Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 55(3), 619-627. 

Machamer, Peter. and Wolters, Gareon. 2004. "Introduction." In Machamer and Wolters (eds.) Science, Values, and Objectivity. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

McMullin, Ernest. 2009. "The Virtues of a Good Theory." In Curd, Martin and Psillos, Stathis. (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science. Routledge, London, 498-508. 

Schindler, Samuel. 2020. "Theoretical Virtues in Science," Oxford Bibliographies.

Related

Contents
1191 found
Order:
1 — 50 / 1191
Material to categorize
  1. Dimensions of Value.Brian Hedden & Daniel Muñoz - forthcoming - Noûs.
    Value pluralists believe in multiple dimensions of value. What does betterness along a dimension have to do with being better overall? Any systematic answer begins with the Strong Pareto principle: one thing is overall better than another if it is better along one dimension and at least as good along all others. We defend Strong Pareto from recent counterexamples and use our discussion to develop a novel view of dimensions of value, one which puts Strong Pareto on firmer footing. We (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  2. Theory, Evidence, Data: Themes from George E. Smith.Marius Stan & Christopher Smeenk - forthcoming - Springer.
    A volume of papers inspired by the work of George E. Smith on confirmation and evidence in advanced science—from Newton's gravitation theory to the physics of molecules.
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  3. Virtues of ‘values’ and ‘virtues’: on theoretical virtues and the aim of science.Mousa Mohammadian - 2022 - Metascience 31 (3):297-302.
    Remove from this list   Direct download (6 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  4. Methodology Maximized: Quine on Empiricism, Naturalism, and Empirical Content.James Andrew Smith - 2022 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 60 (4):661-686.
    W. V. Quine calls some general methods of science maxims: general defeasible principles that call on us to approximate, maximize, or minimize a state and that are interpreted and weighed in context-sensitive ways. On my reading, his empiricism asks us to maximize accepting overall theories empirically equivalent to ours but to minimize accepting sentences that both do not affect the empirical content of our overall theory and do not simplify our overall theory. His naturalism asks us to maximize accepting sentences (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  5. Science by Nobel committee: decision making and norms of scientific practice in the early physics and chemistry prizes.Gustav Källstrand - 2022 - British Journal for the History of Science 55 (2):187-205.
    This paper examines the early years of decision making in the award of the Nobel Prize in physics and chemistry, and shows how the prize became a tool in the boundary work which upheld the social demarcations between scientists and inventors, as well as promoting a particular normative view of individual scientific achievement. The Nobel committees were charged with rewarding scientific achievements that benefited humankind: their interpretation of that criterion, however, turned in the first instance on their assessment of the (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  6. Helen Longino'nun Bilimsel Nesnellik Anlayışı.Alper Bilgehan Yardımcı - 2021 - SRA Academic Publishing.
    Bilimsel faaliyetin ve bilimsel bilginin en temel özelliklerinden bir tanesi olarak karşımıza çıkan bilimsel nesnellik bilim felsefesi alanı içerisinde sıklıkla tartışılan bir konu olagelmiştir. Bu doğrultuda, bilimsel nesnelliğin temin edilmesine yönelik çeşitli görüşler ileri sürülmektedir. Genel olarak bilimsel nesnellik bilim insanlarının çalışmalarında olguları doğrudan yansıtması ya da bilim insanlarının çalışmalarını tarafsız bir bakış açısıyla tamamlaması olarak anlaşılmaktadır. Bu görüşlerin bilim felsefesi içerisindeki yansımaları sırasıyla olgulara bağlılık olarak nesnellik ve hiçbir yerden bakış olarak nesnellik isimleriyle olmuştur. Bu bakış açısı, kişisel çıkarların (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  7. Against Methodological Continuity and Metaphysical Knowledge.Simon Allzén - 2023 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 13 (1):1-20.
    The main purpose of this paper is to refute the metaphysicians ‘methodological continuation’ argument supporting epistemic realism in metaphysics. This argument aims to show that scientific realists have to accept that metaphysics is as rationally justified as science given that they both employ inference to the best explanation, i.e. that metaphysics and science are methodologically continuous. I argue that the reasons given by scientific realists as to why inference to the best explanation is reliable in science do not constitute a (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (11 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  8. Instrumental Unification: Optical Apparatus in the Unification of Dispersion and Selective Absorption.Xiang Chen - 1999 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 30 (4):519-542.
  9. Anastasios Brenner. Raison scientifique et valeurs humaines. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2011. Pp. viii+112, index. €22.00. [REVIEW]Teresa Castelão-Lawless - 2012 - Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 2 (1):182-185.
  10. William C. Wimsatt.C. William - 1976 - In G. Gordon, Grover Maxwell & I. Savodnik (eds.), Consciousness and the Brain: A Scientific and Philosophical Inquiry. Plenum. pp. 205.
    Remove from this list  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  11. Estilos de investigación científica, modelos e insectos sociales.Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther - 2007 - In Edna Suárez Díaz (ed.), Variedad Infinita. Ciencia y representación. Un enfoque histórico y filosófico. UNAM and Editorial Limusa, Mexico.
  12. The analytic and the synthetic as linguistic topics.Sylvain Auroux - 1985 - Topoi 4 (2):193-199.
    The Analytic/Synthetic distinction did not originate in Kant, but in Port-Royal's logical theory. The key for the doctrine is the explicite recognition of two different kinds of relative clauses, e.g. explicative and determinative. In the middle eighteenth century the distinction becomes a topic within the grammars. Although we can find by grammarians different criteria for the distinction, these criteria (for which we can find medieval sources) are for the main predictable from the original theory of ideas, which was presented in (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  13. Waves, particles, and explanatory coherence.Chris Eliasmith & Paul Thagard - 1997 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 48 (1):1-19.
    Peter Achinstein (1990, 1991) analyses the scientific debate that took place in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries concerning the nature of light. He offers a probabilistic account of the methods employed by both particle theorists and wave theorists, and rejects any analysis of this debate in terms of coherence. He characterizes coherence through reference to William Whewell's writings concerning how "consilience of inductions" establishes an acceptable theory (Whewell, 1847) . Achinstein rejects this analysis because of its vagueness and lack of (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (12 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   17 citations  
  14. Preconditions of predication: From qualia to quantum mechanics.Malcolm Forster - 1991 - Topoi 10 (1):13-26.
    Although in every inductive inference, an act of invention is requisite, the act soon slips out of notice. Although we bind together facts by superinducing upon them a new Conception, this Conception, once introduced and applied, is looked upon as inseparably connected with the facts, and necessarily implied in them. Having once had the phenomena bound together in their minds in virtue of the Conception men can no longer easily restore them back to the detached and incoherent condition in which (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  15. The golfer's dilemma: A reply to Kukla on curve-fitting.Malcolm R. Forster - 1995 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 46 (3):348-360.
    Curve-fitting typically works by trading off goodness-of-fit with simplicity, where simplicity is measured by the number of adjustable parameters. However, such methods cannot be applied in an unrestricted way. I discuss one such correction, and explain why the exception arises. The same kind of probabilistic explanation offers a surprising resolution to a common-sense dilemma.
    Remove from this list   Direct download (10 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   8 citations  
  16. The dynamics of belief: Contractions and revisions of probability functions.Peter Gärdenfors - 1986 - Topoi 5 (1):29-37.
    Using probability functions defined over a simple language as models of states of belief, my goal in this article has been to analyse contractions and revisions of beliefs. My first strategy was to formulate postulates for these processes. Close parallels between the postulates for contractions and the postulates for revisions have been established - the results in Section 5 show that contractions and revisions are interchangeable. As a second strategy, some suggestions for more or less explicit constructive definitions of the (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   15 citations  
  17. Philosophy, mathematics, science and computation.Enrique V. Kortright - 1994 - Topoi 13 (1):51-60.
    Attempts to lay a foundation for the sciences based on modern mathematics are questioned. In particular, it is not clear that computer science should be based on set-theoretic mathematics. Set-theoretic mathematics has difficulties with its own foundations, making it reasonable to explore alternative foundations for the sciences. The role of computation within an alternative framework may prove to be of great potential in establishing a direction for the new field of computer science.Whitehead''s theory of reality is re-examined as a foundation (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  18. A note on leśniewski's axiom system for the mereological notion of ingredient or element.C. Lejewski - 1983 - Topoi 2 (1):63-71.
  19. Virtue and the scientist.William Marias Malisoff - 1939 - Philosophy of Science 6 (2):127-136.
    In the practice of science lies the key to virtue. The proposition I have enunciated is not an obvious one. Its contradictory could conceivably be true. One might, for example, look upon the practice of science as a diabolical way of blinding one to the charms of virtue. One might look upon the practice of science as a deliberate plot to efface virtue, destroy it. Worse, one might look upon the practice of science as entirely apart from the issues of (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (8 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  20. Theory-assessment in the historiography of science.James W. McAllister - 1986 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 37 (3):315-333.
    This paper argues that evaluation of the truth and rationality of past scientific theories is both possible and profitable. The motivation for this enterprise is traced to recent discussions by I. Lakatos, L. Laudan and others on the import of history for the philosophy of science; several objections to it are considered and T. S. Kuhn is found to advance the most substantive. An argument for establishing judgements of rationality and truth in the face of scientific revolutions is presented; finally (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (9 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  21. Evolving scientific epistemologies and the artifacts of empirical philosophy of science: A reply concerning mesosomes.Nicolas Rasmussen - 2001 - Biology and Philosophy 16 (5):627-652.
    In a 1993 paper, I argued that empirical treatments of the epistemologyused by scientists in experimental work are too abstract in practice tocounter relativist efforts to explain the outcome of scientificcontroversies by reference to sociological forces. This was because, atthe rarefied level at which the methodology of scientists is treated byphilosophers, multiple mutually inconsistent instantiations of theprinciples described by philosophers are employed by contestingscientists. These multiple construals change within a scientificcommunity over short time frames, and these different versions ofscientific methodology (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   14 citations  
  22. Edward Arthur Milne—The relations of mathematics to science.S. Rebsdorf & H. Kragh - 2002 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 33 (1):51-64.
    This is a transcript of Milne's manuscript notes for a talk which he gave to fellow members of the Cambridge University Natural Science Club in his rooms at Trinity College, Cambridge, on February 6, 1922. The notes are deposited in the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, Special Collections and Western Manuscripts. The background and essential points of Milne's talk are analysed in the article preceding this one. As far as is known, the text has not hitherto been published. Milne's handwriting (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  23. Leśniewski's foundations of mathematics.Vito F. Sinisi - 1983 - Topoi 2 (1):3-52.
    During 1927-1931 Leśniewski published a series of articles (169 pages) entitled 'O podstawach matematyki' [On the Foundations of Mathematics] in the journal Przeglad Filozoficzny [Philosophical Review], and an abridged English translation of this series is presented here. With the exception of this work, all of Leśniewski's publications appearing after the first World War were written in German, and hence accessible to scholars and logicians in the West. This work, however, since written in Polish, has heretofore not been accessible to most (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (5 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  24. The curve fitting problem: A solution.Peter Turney - 1990 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 41 (4):509-530.
    Much of scientific inference involves fitting numerical data with a curve, or functional relation. The received view is that the fittest curve is the curve which best balances the conflicting demands of simplicity and accuracy, where simplicity is measured by the number ofparameters in the curve. The problem with this view is that there is no commonly accepted justification for desiring simplicity. This paper presents a measure of the stability of equations. It is argued that the fittest curve is the (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (10 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   7 citations  
Aesthetic Virtues in Science
  1. Theoretical Virtues: Do Scientists Think What Philosophers Think They Ought to Think?Samuel Schindler - 2022 - Philosophy of Science 89 (3):542-564.
    Theoretical virtues play an important role in the acceptance and belief of theories in science and philosophy. Philosophers have well-developed views on which virtues ought and ought not to influence one’s acceptance and belief. But what do scientists think? This paper presents the results of a quantitative study with scientists from the natural and social sciences and compares their views to those held by philosophers. Some of the more surprising results are: all three groups have a preference order regarding theoretical (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  2. Naturalness and the Forward-Looking Justification of Scientific Principles.Enno Fischer - forthcoming - Philosophy of Science:1-19.
    It has been suggested that particle physics has reached the "dawn of the post-naturalness era." I provide an explanation of the current shift in particle physicists' attitude towards naturalness. I argue that the naturalness principle was perceived to be supported by the theories it has inspired. The potential coherence between major beyond the Standard Model (BSM) proposals and the naturalness principle led to an increasing degree of credibility of the principle among particle physicists. The absence of new physics at the (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  3. What is a Beautiful Experiment?Milena Ivanova - forthcoming - Erkenntnis:1-19.
    This article starts an engagement on the aesthetics of experiments and offers an account for analysing how aesthetics features in the design, evaluation and reception of experiments. I identify two dimensions of aesthetic evaluation of experiments: design and significance. When it comes to design, a number of qualities, such as simplicity, economy and aptness, are analysed and illustrated with the famous Meselson-Stahl experiment. Beautiful experiments are also regarded to make significant discoveries, but I argue against a narrow construal of experimental (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  4. Telling Stories in Science: Feyerabend and Thought Experiments.Michael T. Stuart - 2021 - Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 11 (1):262-281.
    The history of the philosophy of thought experiments has touched on the work of Kuhn, Popper, Duhem, Mach, Lakatos, and other big names of the 20th century, but so far, almost nothing has been written about Paul Feyerabend. His most influential work was Against Method, 8 chapters of which concern a case study of Galileo with a specific focus on Galileo’s thought experiments. In addition, the later Feyerabend was very interested in what might be called the epistemology of drama, including (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  5. The Aesthetics of Science: Beauty, Imagination and Understanding.Milena Ivanova & Steven French (eds.) - 2020 - New York: Routledge.
    This volume builds on two recent developments in philosophy on the relationship between art and science: the notion of representation and the role of values in theory choice and the development of scientific theories. Its aim is to address questions regarding scientific creativity and imagination, the status of scientific performances--such as thought experiments and visual aids--and the role of aesthetic considerations in the context of discovery and justification of scientific theories. Several contributions focus on the concept of beauty as employed (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  6. The Aesthetic and Literary Qualities of Scientific Thought Experiments.Alice Murphy - 2020 - In Milena Ivanova & Steven French (eds.), The Aesthetics of Science: Beauty, Imagination and Understanding.
    Is there a role for aesthetic judgements in science? One aspect of scientific practice, the use of thought experiments, has a clear aesthetic dimension. Thought experiments are creatively produced artefacts that are designed to engage the imagination. Comparisons have been made between scientific (and philosophical) thought experiments and other aesthetically appreciated objects. In particular, thought experiments are said to share qualities with literary fiction as they invite us to imagine a fictional scenario and often have a narrative form (Elgin 2014). (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  7. Is Mathematics Unreasonably Effective?Daniel Waxman - 2021 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 99 (1):83-99.
    Many mathematicians, physicists, and philosophers have suggested that the fact that mathematics—an a priori discipline informed substantially by aesthetic considerations—can be applied to natural science is mysterious. This paper sharpens and responds to a challenge to this effect. I argue that the aesthetic considerations used to evaluate and motivate mathematics are much more closely connected with the physical world than one might presume, and (with reference to case-studies within Galois theory and probabilistic number theory) show that they are correlated with (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  8. The Aesthetics of Theory Selection and the Logics of Art.Ian O’Loughlin & Kate McCallum - 2018 - Philosophy of Science (2):325-343.
    Philosophers of science discuss whether theory selection depends on aesthetic judgments or criteria, and whether these putatively aesthetic features are genuinely extra-epistemic. As examples, judgments involving criteria such as simplicity and symmetry are often cited. However, other theory selection criteria, such as fecundity, coherence, internal consistency, and fertility, more closely match those criteria used in art contexts and by scholars working in aesthetics. Paying closer attention to the way these criteria are used in art contexts allows us to understand some (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (7 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  9. Systematizing the theoretical virtues.Michael N. Keas - 2018 - Synthese 195 (6):2761-2793.
    There are at least twelve major virtues of good theories: evidential accuracy, causal adequacy, explanatory depth, internal consistency, internal coherence, universal coherence, beauty, simplicity, unification, durability, fruitfulness, and applicability. These virtues are best classified into four classes: evidential, coherential, aesthetic, and diachronic. Each virtue class contains at least three virtues that sequentially follow a repeating pattern of progressive disclosure and expansion. Systematizing the theoretical virtues in this manner clarifies each virtue and suggests how they might have a coordinated and cumulative (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   42 citations  
  10. Teaching and learning guide for aesthetics of science.Milena Ivanova - 2017 - Philosophy Compass 12 (10):e12443.
  11. Aesthetic values in science.Milena Ivanova - 2017 - Philosophy Compass 12 (10):e12433.
    Scientists often use aesthetic values in the evaluation and choice of theories. Aesthetic values are not only regarded as leading to practically more useful theories but are often taken to stand in a special epistemic relation to the truth of a theory such that the aesthetic merit of a theory is evidence of its truth. This paper explores what aesthetic considerations influence scientists' reasoning, how such aesthetic values relate to the utility of a scientific theory, and how one can justify (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (6 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   11 citations  
  12. V—Aesthetics in Science: A Kantian Proposal.Angela Breitenbach - 2013 - Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 113 (1pt1):83-100.
    Can aesthetic judgements legitimately be linked to the success of scientific theories? I suggest that a satisfactory answer to this question should account for the persistent attraction that aesthetic considerations seem to have for scientists, while also explaining the apparent instability of the link between the beauty of a theory and its truth. I argue that two widespread tendencies in the literature, Pythagorean and subjectivist approaches, have difficulties meeting this twofold challenge. I propose a Kantian conception of aesthetic judgements as (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   12 citations  
  13. Beauty and Revolution in Science.James W. Mcallister - 1999 - Philosophical Quarterly 49 (194):125-128.
  14. Kepler, elliptical orbits, and celestial circularity: A study in the persistence of metaphysical commitment: Part I.J. Bruce Brackenridge - 1982 - Annals of Science 39 (2):117-143.
    The metaphysical commitment to the circle as the essential element in the analysis of celestial motion has long been recognized as the hallmark of classical astronomy. What has not always been clear, however, is that the circle continued to serve Kepler as a central element in his astronomy after the discovery of the elliptical orbit of Mars. Moreover, the circle also functioned for Kepler in geometry to select the basic polygons, in music to select the basic harmonies, and in astrology (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   8 citations  
  15. The Principle of Economy as an Evaluation Criterion of Theories.Styrman Avril - 2014 - la Nuova Critica 63:63-89.
    The principle of economy favours the theory which gives the most accurate predictions; of two equally accurate theories, economy favours the one which incorporates least metaphysics. The intention is to show that were metaphysical commitments of theories openly acknowledged and simplicity and other virtues generally accepted as judges in theory choice, the progress rate of science would likely become more optimal.
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  16. Meta-Metaphysics: On Metaphysical Equivalence, Primitiveness, and Theory Choice.Jiri Benovsky - 2016 - Springer.
    Metaphysical theories are beautiful. I mean it literally. At the end of this book, I defend the view that metaphysical theories possess aesthetic properties and that these play a crucial role when it comes to theory evaluation and theory choice. But this is the end of a long journey – a journey that is perhaps more important than the destination. Before we get there, the philosophical path I propose to follow starts with three discussions of metaphysical equivalence. I argue that (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   13 citations  
  17. Subjectivity and emotion in scientific research.Jeff Kochan - 2013 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 44 (3):354-362.
    A persistent puzzle for philosophers of science is the well-documented appeal made by scientists to their aesthetic emotions in the course of scientific research. Emotions are usually viewed as irremediably subjective, and thus of no epistemological interest. Yet, by denying an epistemic role for scientists’ emotional dispositions, philosophers find themselves in the awkward position of ignoring phenomena which scientists themselves often insist are of importance. This paper suggests a possible solution to this puzzle by challenging the wholesale identification of emotion (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   9 citations  
  18. Principles and the Development of Physical Theory: Case Studies.Robert Corby Hovis - 1994 - Dissertation, Cornell University
    Three separate articles make up the chapters of this dissertation. They were written with different aims and audiences in mind, but each deals in some way with one or more "principles" that have been invoked in argumentation and explanation in the physical sciences. The principles of concern are propositions which have an "aesthetic" or "foundational" or "philosophical" character and which are generally believed to be widely applicable or particularly powerful--for example, the Principle of Plenitude, the Principle of Mathematical Beauty, Occam's (...)
    Remove from this list  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  19. On Aesthetics in Science.Judith Wechsler - 1978 - MIT Press (MA).
  20. On Aesthetics in Science by Judith Wechsler. [REVIEW]Karen Reeds - 1979 - Isis 70:448-449.
  21. Virginia Woolf and the Discourse of Science: The Aesthetics of Astronomy. [REVIEW]Kathryn Neeley - 2005 - Isis 96:132-133.
  22. Fearful Symmetry: The Search for Beauty in Modern Physics by A. Zee. [REVIEW]James Mcallister - 2001 - Isis 92:130-131.
  23. Beautiful Evidence. [REVIEW]Laura Perini - 2007 - Isis 98:667-668.
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  24. The Aesthetics of Laboratory Inscription: Claude Bernard's Cahier Rouge.Atia Sattar - 2013 - Isis 104 (1):63-85.
    This essay explores the aesthetic sensibilities of the French physiologist Claude Bernard . In particular, it analyzes the Cahier Rouge , Bernard's acclaimed laboratory notebook. In this notebook, Bernard articulates the range of his experience as an experimental physiologist, juxtaposing without differentiation details of laboratory procedure and more personal queries, doubts, and reflections on experimentation, life, and art. Bernard's insights, it is argued, offer an aesthetic and phenomenological template for considering experimentation. His physiological point of view ranges from his own (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  25. Galileo as a Critic of the Arts: Aesthetic Attitude and Scientific Thought.Erwin Panofsky - 1956 - Isis 47:3-15.
  26. The Elusive Synthesis: Aesthetics and Science by Alfred I. Tauber. [REVIEW]Nick Jardine - 1997 - Isis 88:747-748.
1 — 50 / 1191