Unity of science

Cat, Jordi

doi:10.4324/9780415249126-q121-1

Cited by 25 publications

(33 citation statements)

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“…Different scientific disciplines, despite using vastly different vocabulary to describe phenomena and the world, are not in direct conflict if one understands the targets of their investigations to be separated into distinct and separate strata (Cat 2017). For example, psychology concerns phenomena at the psychological level, chemistry, the chemical level, and so on.…”

Section: Baetu On Multidisciplinary Models and Inter-level Causationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence amalgamation in the sciences: an introduction

2018

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Amalgamating evidence from heterogeneous sources and across levels of inquiry is becoming increasingly important in many pure and applied sciences. This special issue provides a forum for researchers from diverse scientific and philosophical perspectives to discuss evidence amalgamation, its methodologies, its history, its pitfalls, and its potential. We situate the contributions therein within six themes from the broad literature on this subject: the variety-of-evidence thesis, the philosophy of meta-analysis, the role of robustness/sensitivity analysis for evidence amalgamation, its bearing on questions of extrapolation and external validity of experiments, its connection with theory development, and its interface with causal inference, especially regarding causal theories of cancer.

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Section: Baetu On Multidisciplinary Models and Inter-level Causationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence amalgamation in the sciences: an introduction

2018

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“…However, we do not wish to imply that our theory is somehow monolithic and 'closed'. Recent developments relevant to the problematic of unity have been well summarized by Jordi Cat in his article on the Unity of Science in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [61]. Unification must not be created on the principle of 'unity for the sake of unity".…”

Section: A Unified Theory Of Operators and Logic In Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Operators in Nature, Science, Technology, and Society: Mathematical, Logical, and Philosophical Issues

Burgin

Brenner²

2017

Philosophies

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Abstract:The concept of an operator is used in a variety of practical and theoretical areas. Operators, as both conceptual and physical entities, are found throughout the world as subsystems in nature, the human mind, and the manmade world. Operators, and what they operate, i.e., their substrates, targets, or operands, have a wide variety of forms, functions, and properties. Operators have explicit philosophical significance. On the one hand, they represent important ontological issues of reality. On the other hand, epistemological operators form the basic mechanism of cognition. At the same time, there is no unified theory of the nature and functions of operators. In this work, we elaborate a detailed analysis of operators, which range from the most abstract formal structures and symbols in mathematics and logic to real entities, human and machine, and are responsible for effecting changes at both the individual and collective human levels. Our goal is to find what is common in physical objects called operators and abstract mathematical structures, with the name operator providing foundations for building a unified but flexible theory of operators. The paper concludes with some reflections on functionalism and other philosophical aspects of the 'operation' of operators.

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“…Without going more deeply into this question, if one looks at the authoritative article by Cat in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [62], one is struck by the diversity of senses that can be given to the definition of unity! These range from the possible single nature of the underlying "stuff" of the universe, to the unification of the disciplines within science and with regard to these whether on is dealing with concepts or terms or the higher-level entity of theory and whether the relations are ones of reduction, explanation or logical inference.…”

Section: The Question Of Unitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Philosophy of Information: Revolution in Philosophy. Towards an Informational Metaphilosophy of Science

Brenner

2017

Philosophies

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Abstract:In the most general if unconventional terms, science is the study of how man is part of the universe. Philosophy is the study of man's ideas of the universe and how man differs from the rest of the universe. It has of course been recognized that philosophy and science are not totally disjointed. Science is in any case not a monolithic entity but refers to knowledge as the results of reasoning and both invasive and non-invasive experiment. We argue that the philosophy of science, in studying the foundations, methods and implications of science and the link between philosophy and science, must now take into account the impact of the rapidly developing science and philosophy of information. We suggest that the philosophy of information is in fact a metaphilosophy, since informational processes operate in all the sciences and their philosophies. The simplest definition of (a) metaphilosophy is that of a set of statements about (a) philosophy, and any definition of a metaphilosophy thus requires one of philosophy and of the task of philosophy as well. According to Sellars, "the aim of philosophy is to understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together in the broadest possible sense of the term". In this paper, we focus on the recursive thought underlying those statements as real processes, occurring both in and between the fundamental and the meta-level. We propose a non-standard logic, Logic in Reality, as the logic of those processes. The metaphilosophy of information is thus a framework for talking about the scientific aspects of philosophy and the philosophical aspects of science. Both Logic in Reality and the metaphilosophy of information provide a basis for understanding the physical and epistemological dynamics of existence, that is, from where the properties of things come that enable both them and the concepts of them to contrast, conflict and ultimately "hang together". We conclude that the current convergence of science and philosophy under the influence of information science constitutes a revolution in philosophy, that is, in how science and philosophy are done. Many of the issues discussed in the metaphilosophy of information may thus be viewed as part of an emerging informational metaphilosophy of science.

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Unity of science

Cited by 25 publications

References 0 publications

Evidence amalgamation in the sciences: an introduction

Evidence amalgamation in the sciences: an introduction

Operators in Nature, Science, Technology, and Society: Mathematical, Logical, and Philosophical Issues

Philosophy of Information: Revolution in Philosophy. Towards an Informational Metaphilosophy of Science

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