The Logical Foundations of Scientific Theories

The Logical Foundations of Scientific Theories

Author: Decio Krause

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-07-15

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 131553519X

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This book addresses the logical aspects of the foundations of scientific theories. Even though the relevance of formal methods in the study of scientific theories is now widely recognized and regaining prominence, the issues covered here are still not generally discussed in philosophy of science. The authors focus mainly on the role played by the underlying formal apparatuses employed in the construction of the models of scientific theories, relating the discussion with the so-called semantic approach to scientific theories. The book describes the role played by this metamathematical framework in three main aspects: considerations of formal languages employed to axiomatize scientific theories, the role of the axiomatic method itself, and the way set-theoretical structures, which play the role of the models of theories, are developed. The authors also discuss the differences and philosophical relevance of the two basic ways of aximoatizing a scientific theory, namely Patrick Suppes’ set theoretical predicates and the "da Costa and Chuaqui" approach. This book engages with important discussions of the nature of scientific theories and will be a useful resource for researchers and upper-level students working in philosophy of science.


Foundations of the Logical Theory of Scientific Knowledge (Complex Logic)

Foundations of the Logical Theory of Scientific Knowledge (Complex Logic)

Author: A.A. Zinov'ev

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 9401025010

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Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science are devoted to symposia, con gresses, colloquia, monographs and collected papers on the philosophical foundations of the sciences. It is now our pleasure to include A. A. Zi nov'ev's treatise on complex logic among these volumes. Zinov'ev is one of the most creative of modern Soviet logicians, and at the same time an innovative worker on the methodological foundations of science. More over, Zinov'ev, although still a developing scholar, has exerted a sub stantial and stimulating influence upon his colleagues and students in Moscow and within other philosophical and logical circles of the Soviet Union. Hence it may be helpful, in bringing this present work to an English-reading audience, to review briefly some contemporary Soviet investigations into scientific methodology. During the 1950's, a vigorous new research program in logic was under taken, and the initial published work -characteristic of most Soviet pub lications in the logic and methodology of the sciences - was a collection of essays, Logical Investigations (Moscow, 1959). Among the authors, in addition to Zinov'ev himself, were the philosophers A. Kol'man and P. V. Tavanec, and the mathematicians and linguists, S. A. Janovskaja, A. S. Esenin-Vol'pin, S. K. Saumjan, G. N. Povarov.


The Logical Foundations of Scientific Theories

The Logical Foundations of Scientific Theories

Author: Decio Krause

Publisher: Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Mathematics and Physics

Published: 2019-12-12

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 9780367889685

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This book addresses the logical aspects of the foundations of scientific theories. Even though the relevance of formal methods in the study of scientific theories is now widely recognized and regaining prominence, the issues covered here are still not generally discussed in philosophy of science. The authors focus mainly on the role played by the underlying formal apparatuses employed in the construction of the models of scientific theories, relating the discussion with the so-called semantic approach to scientific theories. The book describes the role played by this metamathematical framework in three main aspects: considerations of formal languages employed to axiomatize scientific theories, the role of the axiomatic method itself, and the way set-theoretical structures, which play the role of the models of theories, are developed. The authors also discuss the differences and philosophical relevance of the two basic ways of aximoatizing a scientific theory, namely Patrick Suppes' set theoretical predicates and the "da Costa and Chuaqui" approach. This book engages with important discussions of the nature of scientific theories and will be a useful resource for researchers and upper-level students working in philosophy of science.


On Logic and the Theory of Science

On Logic and the Theory of Science

Author: Jean Cavailles

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2021-04-27

Total Pages: 143

ISBN-13: 1913029417

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A new translation of the final work of French philosopher Jean Cavaillès. In this short, dense essay, Jean Cavaillès evaluates philosophical efforts to determine the origin—logical or ontological—of scientific thought, arguing that, rather than seeking to found science in original intentional acts, a priori meanings, or foundational logical relations, any adequate theory must involve a history of the concept. Cavaillès insists on a historical epistemology that is conceptual rather than phenomenological, and a logic that is dialectical rather than transcendental. His famous call (cited by Foucault) to abandon "a philosophy of consciousness" for "a philosophy of the concept" was crucial in displacing the focus of philosophical enquiry from aprioristic foundations toward structural historical shifts in the conceptual fabric. This new translation of Cavaillès's final work, written in 1942 during his imprisonment for Resistance activities, presents an opportunity to reencounter an original and lucid thinker. Cavaillès's subtle adjudication between positivistic claims that science has no need of philosophy, and philosophers' obstinate disregard for actual scientific events, speaks to a dilemma that remains pertinent for us today. His affirmation of the authority of scientific thinking combined with his commitment to conceptual creation yields a radical defense of the freedom of thought and the possibility of the new.


The Logical Foundations of the Marxian Theory of Value

The Logical Foundations of the Marxian Theory of Value

Author: Adolfo García de la Sienra

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 9401126941

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Written before the impressive collapse of the socialist system in Eastern Europe, this book offers a quite objective and serious systematic analysis of the Marxian labor theory of value, Marx's main scientific legacy. After reconstructing the 'prototype' of this theory -- which is the theory as it was left by Marx himself in Capital -- the author proceeds to a careful and detailed analysis of its foundational problems, taking into account Böhm-Bawerk's important criticisms. After introducing advanced contemporary formal tools, the author proceeds to a thorough discussion of the dialectical method, just in order to tackle the foundational problems of the theory. He provides a formally precise and well motivated definition of abstract labor, and then proceeds to prove the existence of a measurement of abstract labor -- i.e. the existence of numerical labor-values. Using this result, the author provides rigorous axiomatic foundations for the theory of value and then proves the existence of a Marxian competitive equilibrium, which is tantamount to the proof of the possibility of reproduction for a capitalist economy. The author finishes the book by showing in detail how the problems of the prototype are solved, by reconstructing the Leontief model of the labor theory of value on the new logical bases. Written in a very clear style, in the language of contemporary philosophy of science, the book is of interest to philosophers of science and economists, applied logicians and all those interested in the scientific legacy of Karl Marx.


The Logical Foundations of Mathematics

The Logical Foundations of Mathematics

Author: William S. Hatcher

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2014-05-09

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 1483189635

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The Logical Foundations of Mathematics offers a study of the foundations of mathematics, stressing comparisons between and critical analyses of the major non-constructive foundational systems. The position of constructivism within the spectrum of foundational philosophies is discussed, along with the exact relationship between topos theory and set theory. Comprised of eight chapters, this book begins with an introduction to first-order logic. In particular, two complete systems of axioms and rules for the first-order predicate calculus are given, one for efficiency in proving metatheorems, and the other, in a "natural deduction" style, for presenting detailed formal proofs. A somewhat novel feature of this framework is a full semantic and syntactic treatment of variable-binding term operators as primitive symbols of logic. Subsequent chapters focus on the origin of modern foundational studies; Gottlob Frege's formal system intended to serve as a foundation for mathematics and its paradoxes; the theory of types; and the Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory. David Hilbert's program and Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorems are also examined, along with the foundational systems of W. V. Quine and the relevance of categorical algebra for foundations. This monograph will be of interest to students, teachers, practitioners, and researchers in mathematics.


Theory and Reality

Theory and Reality

Author: Peter Godfrey-Smith

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2021-07-16

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 022677113X

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How does science work? Does it tell us what the world is “really” like? What makes it different from other ways of understanding the universe? In Theory and Reality, Peter Godfrey-Smith addresses these questions by taking the reader on a grand tour of more than a hundred years of debate about science. The result is a completely accessible introduction to the main themes of the philosophy of science. Examples and asides engage the beginning student, a glossary of terms explains key concepts, and suggestions for further reading are included at the end of each chapter. Like no other text in this field, Theory and Reality combines a survey of recent history of the philosophy of science with current key debates that any beginning scholar or critical reader can follow. The second edition is thoroughly updated and expanded by the author with a new chapter on truth, simplicity, and models in science.


The Logic of Scientific Discovery

The Logic of Scientific Discovery

Author: Karl Popper

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2005-11-04

Total Pages: 545

ISBN-13: 1134470029

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Described by the philosopher A.J. Ayer as a work of 'great originality and power', this book revolutionized contemporary thinking on science and knowledge. Ideas such as the now legendary doctrine of 'falsificationism' electrified the scientific community, influencing even working scientists, as well as post-war philosophy. This astonishing work ranks alongside The Open Society and Its Enemies as one of Popper's most enduring books and contains insights and arguments that demand to be read to this day.


Karl Popper's Philosophy of Science

Karl Popper's Philosophy of Science

Author: Stefano Gattei

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2008-10-16

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 1134182953

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Rectifying misrepresentations of Popperian thought with a historical approach to Popper’s philosophy, Gattei reconstructs the logic of Popper’s development to show how one problem and its tentative solution led to a new problem.