A Contextual Approach to Scientific Understanding
Henk W. de Regt,Dennis Dieks +1 more
TLDR
This analysis provides a general account of how understanding is provided by scientific explanations of diverse types and reconciles conflicting views of explanatory understanding, such as the causal-mechanical and the unificationist conceptions.Abstract:
Achieving understanding of nature is one of the aims of science. In this paper we offer an analysis of the nature of scientific understanding that accords with actual scientific practice and accommodates the historical diversity of conceptions of understanding. Its core idea is a general criterion for the intelligibility of scientific theories that is essentially contextual: which theories conform to this criterion depends on contextual factors, and can change in the course of time. Our analysis provides a general account of how understanding is provided by scientific explanations of diverse types. In this way, it reconciles conflicting views of explanatory understanding, such as the causal-mechanical and the unificationist conceptions.read more
Citations
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Modelling and representing: An artefactual approach to model-based representation
TL;DR: This article argued that the traditional representational approach is too limiting as regards the epistemic value of modelling given the focus on the relationship between a single model and its supposed target system, and the neglect of the actual representational means with which scientists construct models.
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Is Understanding A Species Of Knowledge
TL;DR: Among philosophers of science there seems to be a general consensus that understanding represents a species of knowledge, but virtually every major epistemologist who has thought seriously as mentioned in this paper does not agree with this view.
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No understanding without explanation
TL;DR: For example, the authors argues that to understand why a phenomenon occurs is to grasp a correct explanation of the phenomenon, and that there is no route to scientific understanding that does not go by way of scientific explanation.
References
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The structure of scientific revolutions
TL;DR: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions as mentioned in this paper is a seminal work in the history of science and philosophy of science, and it has been widely cited as a major source of inspiration for the present generation of scientists.
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Über den anschaulichen Inhalt der quantentheoretischen Kinematik und Mechanik
TL;DR: In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden zunachst exakte Definitionen der Worte: Ort, Geschwindigkeit, Energie usw. as mentioned in this paper.
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TL;DR: Thinking in terms of mechanisms provides a new framework for addressing many traditional philosophical issues: causality, laws, explanation, reduction, and scientific change.