Epistemology & Methodology III: Philosophy of Science and Technology Part I: Formal and Physical Sciences

ISBN-13: 9789027719034 / Angielski / Twarda / 1985 / 263 str.

Mario Bunge; M. Bunge

Opis

The aims of this Introduction are to characterize the philosophy of science and technology, henceforth PS & T, to locate it on the map ofiearning, and to propose criteria for evaluating work in this field. 1. THE CHASM BETWEEN S & T AND THE HUMANITIES It has become commonplace to note that contemporary culture is split into two unrelated fields: science and the rest, to deplore this split - and to do is some truth in the two cultures thesis, and even nothing about it. There greater truth in the statement that there are literally thousands of fields of knowledge, each of them cultivated by specialists who are in most cases indifferent to what happens in the other fields. But it is equally true that all fields of knowledge are united, though in some cases by weak links, forming the system of human knowledge. Because of these links, what advances, remains stagnant, or declines, is the entire system of S & T. Throughout this book we shall distinguish the main fields of scientific and technological knowledge while at the same time noting the links that unite them.

Spis treści

of Epistemology III.- 1. The Chasm between S&T and the Humanities.- 2. Bridging the Chasm.- 3. Towards a Useful PS&T.- 4. Concluding Remarks.- 1. Formal Science: From Logic to Mathematics.- 1. Generalities.- 1.1 Two Main Types of Research Field.- 1.2 Some Peculiarities of Mathematics.- 2. Mathematics and Reality.- 2.1 Conceptual Existence.- 2.2 Mathematics and Reality.- 3. Logic.- 3.1 Logic Lato Sensu.- 3.2 Non-standard Logics.- 4. Pure and Applied Mathematics.- 4.1 Applications of Mathematics.- 4.2 An Example: Probability.- 5. Foundations and Philosophy.- 5.1 Foundations of Mathematics.- 5.2 Philosophies of Mathematics.- 6. Concluding Remarks.- 2. Physical Science: From Physics to Earth Science.- 1. Preliminaries.- 1.1 Physical Quantity, Convention, Measurement.- 1.2 Theory, Metatheory, Protophysics.- 2. Two Classics.- 2.1 Classical Mechanics.- 2.2 Statistical Mechanics.- 3. Two Relativities.- 3.1 Special Relativity.- 3.2 General Relativity.- 4. Quantons.- 4.1 Classons and Quantons.- 4.2 The State Function and its Referents.- 5. Chance.- 5.1 Probability.- 5.2 Double Slit and Double Logic.- 6. Realism and Classicism.- 6.1 Measurement and Projection.- 6.2 Hidden Variables, Separability, and Realism.- 7. Chemistry.- 7.1 Philosophy and Chemistry.- 7.2 Is Chemistry Reducible to Physics?.- 8. Megaphysics.- 8.1 Earth Sciences.- 8.2 Cosmology.- 9. Concluding Remarks.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.