The Computational and Pragmatic Approach to the Dynamics of Science

• Authors: Marciszewski Witold
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Sciencemeans here mathematics and those empirical disciplines which avail themselves of mathematical models. The pragmaticapproachis conceived in Karl R. Popper’s The Logic of Scientific Discovery(p.276) sense: a logical appraisal of the success of a theory amounts to the appraisal of its corroboration. This kind of appraisal is exemplified in section 6 by a case study—on how Isaac Newton justified his theory of gravitation. The computationalapproach in problem-solving processes consists in considering them in terms of computability: either as being performed according to a model of computation in a narrower sense, e.g., the Turing machine, or in a wider perspective—of machines associated with a non-mechanical device called “oracle”by Alan Turing (1939). Oracle can be interpreted as computer-theoretic representation of intuitionor invention. Computational approach in an-other sense means considering problem-solving processes in terms of logical gates, supposed to be a physical basis for solving problems with a reasoning.Pragmatic rationalismabout science, seen at the background of classical ration-alism (Descartes, Gottfried Leibniz etc.), claims that any scientific idea, either in empirical theories or in mathematics, should be checked through applications to problem-solving processes. Both the versions claim the existence of abstract objects, available to intellectual intuition. The difference concerns the dynamics of science: (i) the classical rationalism regards science as a stationary system that does not need improvements after having reached an optimal state, while (ii) the pragmatical ver-sion conceives science as evolving dynamically due to fertile interactions between creative intuitions, or inventions, with mechanical procedures.The dynamics of science is featured with various models, like Derek J.de Solla Price’sexponential and Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm model (the most familiar instanc-es). This essay suggests considering Turing’s idea of oracle as a complementary model to explain most adequately, in terms of exceptional inventiveness, the dynam-ics of mathematics and mathematizable empirical sciences.

Keywords

EN

algorithm; behavioral (vs declarative) knowledge; computability; corroboration; innate knowledge; intuition; invention; logic gates; oracle; pragmatic (vs classical) rationalism; problem-solving; reasoning; symbolic logic; Turing machine

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii PAN
• Journal: Filozofia i Nauka
• Year: 2020
• Volume: 8/1
• Pages: 31-67

Contributors

author

Marciszewski Witold

• Center for Formal Ontology, affiliated at Warsaw University of Technology