The Argumentum Ad Hominem and Two Theses About Evolutionary Epistemology: “Godelian” Reflections

Martin, James E.; Kleindorfer, George B.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-9973.1991.tb00812.x

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Bernstein argues that progress of philosophy has been hampered by the framework which posits validation as an ''either/or'' proposition. See also Martin and Kleindorfer (1991) for a depiction of the logical structure of this debate; specifically, how each pole complements and implicitly assumes the epistemic presuppositions of its opposite.…”

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

Validation in Simulation: Various Positions in the Philosophy of Science

1998

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There is still considerable doubt and even anxiety among simulation modelers as to what the methodologically correct guidelines or procedures for validating simulation models should be. Epistemically, the approaches one finds in the simulation literature run the gamut from objectivist to relativist with shades in between. At present in the philosophy of science, there appears to be a convergence toward a nonalgorithmic but discursive and nonrelativistic view of the argumentation involved in warranting scientific theorizing. The present paper attempts to give a description of the various philosophical positions as well as to summarize their problems and the kinds of evidentiary arguments they would each allow in arriving at defensible simulation models. From the debate, we attempt to set out a perspective that frees the practioner to pursue a varied set of approaches to validation with a diminished burden of methodological anxiety. Reciprocally this perspective does not let the modeler off of the hook but rather converts the validation problem into an ethical problem in which the practitioner must responsibly and professionally argue for the warrant of the model.Simulation, Validation, Philosophy of Science, Hermeneutics

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confidence: 99%

Validation in Simulation: Various Positions in the Philosophy of Science

1998

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“…As Martin and Kleindorfer (1991) have argued and illustrated in detail, if one chooses a Darwinian metric which implies that aesthetic, epistemic, and moral values are irrelevant dimensions ofsocial data, to avoid an adhominem selfrefutation, the theorist must place himself outside of the explanatory system (e.g., his theory is not an evolutionary product) . Barkow (1991, p. 373), for example, is an evolutionary theorist who admits that his "values are not especially biological and they do not somehow flow from evolutionary theory" (cited in Charlesworth, 1991).…”

Section: Bert H Hodges and Rueben M Baron The Grounding Oflaws Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

Values as constraints on affordances: Perceiving and acting properly

1992

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“…The entry of a new perspective occurs often in conversational play. An ongoing conversation may provoke a perspective that not only analyzes what has gone before but also stands over against it and shows its incompleteness or even contradicts it (for a related discussion see Martin & Kleindorfer, 1991). As cited earlier, Collingwood (1959) has pointed out that it is from the space defined by distinct possibilities that meaning emerges.…”

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confidence: 95%

Information Flow and Hermeneutic Play in Perception and Dialogue

Martin

Fonseca

2010

Ecological Psychology

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This article elucidates a fundamental and preliminary distinction required for information flow as well as the to-and-fro play of information defined in relation to such distinctions. Viewing both perception and language under the inspiration of the hermeneutic phenomenologies of Heidegger and Gadamer, we show how perception and language are grounded in the aforementioned distinction. This is done through analyses of perceptual-motor examples and the mid-20th-century debate in the philosophy of science between Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn. Preliminary distinctions and the to-and-fro play that surrounds them constitute a fundamental framework for much psychological analysis.The relativity of our perception of motion, with which we become conversant as children when traveling by ship or by train, corresponds to common-place experiences on the reciprocal character of the perception of touch. One need only remember here the sensation, often cited by psychologists, which every one has experienced when attempting to orient himself in a dark room with a stick. When the stick is held loosely, it appears to the sense of touch to be an object. When, however, it is held firmly, we lose the sensation that it is a foreign body, and the impression of touch becomes immediately localized at the point where the stick is touching the body under investigation. 255As the quotation from Bohr (1934) indicates, information is communicated in the context of a certain combination of variance and invariance. A cane moving across objects in a dark room communicates information to the observer only when the relation between the cane and the hand holding it is relatively invariant-that is, when the cane is held firmly so that little information about the cane is communicated to the observer. Alternatively, a loosened grip on the cane makes information about the cane available, but it reduces the availability of information about the objects in the room. Bohr's (1934) point is that the availability of information about the objects and about the cane is roughly complementary in Heisenberg's sense. These simple facts reveal principles of information flow that are at the heart of this article. Beginning from them, we show how information flow occurs in the context of a basic distinction. We call this the preliminary distinction. Insofar as information is fundamental to consciousness and self-consciousness, such preliminary distinctions and the toand-fro play of information that surrounds them are fundamental to the structure of both consciousness and self-consciousness.In the following, the preliminary distinction is described through two quite diverse examples-the first perceptual, the second linguistic. We begin with a gedanken experiment concerning the realm of perceptual-motor phenomena: the movement of the block back and forth between a child's hands. Second, we approach the preliminary distinction in relation to language by showing its relevance to an important conversation drawn from mid-20th-century philosophy of science, the Popper-Kuhn ...

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The Argumentum Ad Hominem and Two Theses About Evolutionary Epistemology: “Godelian” Reflections

Cited by 10 publications

References 3 publications

Validation in Simulation: Various Positions in the Philosophy of Science

Validation in Simulation: Various Positions in the Philosophy of Science

Values as constraints on affordances: Perceiving and acting properly

Information Flow and Hermeneutic Play in Perception and Dialogue

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