Chapter I - Overview


1.01 Aim of Philosophy of Science

The aim of contemporary philosophy of science is to formulate principles of basic-science research practices by investigating successful episodes in the history of science, and then to advance contemporary basic science by applying the principles.

This introductory ebook is a concise summary of the contemporary pragmatist principles of philosophy of science.


1.02 Computational Philosophy of Science

Achievement of the aim of philosophy of science is facilitated today by computerized discovery systems in a new specialty called “computational philosophy of science”. Computational philosophy of science is the design, development and application of computer systems that simulate episodes in the history of science. The resulting mechanized procedures formulate and implement principles for contemporary philosophy of science. Application of the computer systems aims to facilitate the advancement of contemporary basic-science research. Computational philosophy of science gives the philosopher a contributing role in the work of the scientist.


1.03 Two Perspectives on Language

Philosophy of language supplies the analytical framework that integrates contemporary philosophy of science. Philosophers distinguish two perspectives in philosophy of language called “object language” and “metalanguage”. Object language includes most of ordinary discourse together with the language of the sciences, which is about the domains of reality that the particular sciences investigate.

Metalanguage is language about object languages. Much of the discourse in philosophy of science is in the metalinguistic perspective. Important metalinguistic terms include “theory”, “law”, “observation report” and “explanation”. And the computer instructions coded in the discovery systems are also metalinguistic expressions, because these systems input, process and output the object languages of the sciences.


1.04 Dimensions of Language

Using the metalinguistic perspective, philosophers analyze the object languages of science in terms of four aspects that Rudolf Carnap called “dimensions”. They are syntax, semantics, ontology, and pragmatics.

Syntax refers to the structure of language, as is often represented by ink marks on paper. Syntactical symbols include terms such as words and mathematical variables, and also sentences and mathematical equations assembled from the terms. Syntactical rules enable construction of grammatical expressions such as sentences and equations by concatenation or other arrangements of terms.

Semantics is the meanings associated with syntactical symbols. Syntax without semantics is systematic but literally meaningless. The addition of meanings to syntactical symbols makes the syntax “semantically interpreted”.

In the metalinguistic perspective belief in the truth of semantically interpreted universally quantified sentences makes the sentences “semantical rules” that are used for analyzing the complex meanings of their component subject terms. The lexical entries in a common unilingual dictionary function as semantical rules.

Ontology is the aspects of extralinguistic reality that are described by semantically interpreted sentences believed to be true due to empirical testing. “Empirical” means based on experience, i.e., conceptualized sense stimuli.

Pragmatics in philosophy of science pertains to how scientists use language, namely to create and test theories, and thus to develop the scientific laws that are operative in scientific explanations.


1.05 Classifications of Functional Topics

Basic-science research practices can be classified into topics that pertain to certain functions performed in basic research. They are also the principal topics typically discussed in the philosophy-of-science literature.

Aim of basic science is to develop explanations, which are the institutionalized objective and the products of basic-science research.

Discovery pertains to the processes of developing new theories. Pragmatists define theory language pragmatically as universally quantified statements including equations that are proposed for empirical testing. Empirical testing is the pragmatics of theory language.

Criticism pertains to the decision criteria for the evaluation of theories. Pragmatists accept only the empirical criterion for evaluation of theories.

Explanations for individual events are enabled by scientific laws, which are theories that have been tested empirically and not falsified by the tests.


1.06 Classification of Modern Philosophies

Twentieth-century philosophies of science may be classified into three generic types. Each type has several representative authors with different but similar philosophical ideas. These generic types of philosophy are romanticism, positivism and contemporary pragmatism.

There are philosophical issues in all four of the functional topics listed above, which originate in the different philosophies of language characteristic of these three modern philosophical traditions. Each of the three modern philosophies uses different concepts for such metalinguistic terms as “theory” and “explanation”.

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