|
Showing 1 - 6 of
6 matches in All Departments
The book examines the emerging approach of using qualitative
methods, such as interviews and field observations, in the
philosophy of science. Qualitative methods are gaining popularity
among philosophers of science as more and more scholars are
resorting to empirical work in their study of scientific practices.
At the same time, the results produced through empirical work are
quite different from those gained through the kind of introspective
conceptual analysis more typical of philosophy. This volume
explores the benefits and challenges of an empirical philosophy of
science and addresses questions such as: What do philosophers gain
from empirical work? How can empirical research help to develop
philosophical concepts? How do we integrate philosophical
frameworks and empirical research? What constraints do we accept
when choosing an empirical approach? What constraints does a
pronounced theoretical focus impose on empirical work? Nine experts
discuss their thoughts and empirical results in the chapters of
this book with the aim of providing readers with an answer to these
questions.
The book examines the emerging approach of using qualitative
methods, such as interviews and field observations, in the
philosophy of science. Qualitative methods are gaining popularity
among philosophers of science as more and more scholars are
resorting to empirical work in their study of scientific practices.
At the same time, the results produced through empirical work are
quite different from those gained through the kind of introspective
conceptual analysis more typical of philosophy. This volume
explores the benefits and challenges of an empirical philosophy of
science and addresses questions such as: What do philosophers gain
from empirical work? How can empirical research help to develop
philosophical concepts? How do we integrate philosophical
frameworks and empirical research? What constraints do we accept
when choosing an empirical approach? What constraints does a
pronounced theoretical focus impose on empirical work? Nine experts
discuss their thoughts and empirical results in the chapters of
this book with the aim of providing readers with an answer to these
questions.
An account that analyzes the dynamic reasoning processes implicated
in a fundamental problem of creativity in science: how does genuine
novelty emerge from existing representations? How do novel
scientific concepts arise? In Creating Scientific Concepts, Nancy
Nersessian seeks to answer this central but virtually unasked
question in the problem of conceptual change. She argues that the
popular image of novel concepts and profound insight bursting forth
in a blinding flash of inspiration is mistaken. Instead, novel
concepts are shown to arise out of the interplay of three factors:
an attempt to solve specific problems; the use of conceptual,
analytical, and material resources provided by the
cognitive-social-cultural context of the problem; and dynamic
processes of reasoning that extend ordinary cognition. Focusing on
the third factor, Nersessian draws on cognitive science research
and historical accounts of scientific practices to show how
scientific and ordinary cognition lie on a continuum, and how
problem-solving practices in one illuminate practices in the other.
Her investigations of scientific practices show conceptual change
as deriving from the use of analogies, imagistic representations,
and thought experiments, integrated with experimental
investigations and mathematical analyses. She presents a view of
constructed models as hybrid objects, serving as intermediaries
between targets and analogical sources in bootstrapping processes.
Extending these results, she argues that these complex cognitive
operations and structures are not mere aids to discovery, but that
together they constitute a powerful form of reasoning-model-based
reasoning-that generates novelty. This new approach to mental
modeling and analogy, together with Nersessian's
cognitive-historical approach, make Creating Scientific Concepts
equally valuable to cognitive science and philosophy of science.
Science as Psychology reveals the complexity and richness of
rationality by demonstrating how social relationships, emotion,
culture, and identity are implicated in the problem-solving
practices of laboratory scientists. In this study, the authors
gather and analyze interview and observational data from
innovation-focused laboratories in the engineering sciences to show
how the complex practices of laboratory research scientists provide
rich psychological insights, and how a better understanding of
science practice facilitates understanding of human beings more
generally. The study focuses not on dismantling the rational core
of scientific practice, but on illustrating how social, personal,
and cognitive processes are intricately woven together in
scientific thinking. The authors argue that this characterization
illustrates a way of addressing the integration problem in science
studies how to characterize the fluid entanglements of cognitive,
affective, material, cultural, and other dimensions of discovery
and problem solving. Drawing on George Kelly s person as scientist
metaphor, the authors extend the implications of this analysis to
general psychology. The book is thus a contribution to science
studies, the psychology of science, and general psychology.
Science as Psychology reveals the complexity and richness of
rationality by demonstrating how social relationships, emotion,
culture, and identity are implicated in the problem-solving
practices of laboratory scientists. In this study, the authors
gather and analyze interview and observational data from
innovation-focused laboratories in the engineering sciences to show
how the complex practices of laboratory research scientists provide
rich psychological insights, and how a better understanding of
science practice facilitates understanding of human beings more
generally. The study focuses not on dismantling the rational core
of scientific practice, but on illustrating how social, personal,
and cognitive processes are intricately woven together in
scientific thinking. The authors argue that this characterization
illustrates a way of addressing the integration problem in science
studies how to characterize the fluid entanglements of cognitive,
affective, material, cultural, and other dimensions of discovery
and problem solving. Drawing on George Kelly s person as scientist
metaphor, the authors extend the implications of this analysis to
general psychology. The book is thus a contribution to science
studies, the psychology of science, and general psychology.
|
You may like...
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
|