Please can I have comments upon the following paper?
The Purpose and Place of Formal Systems in the
Development of Science
CPM Report No.: 00-75
By: Bruce Edmonds
Date: 28th Septmeber 2000
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to re-emphasise that the purpose of formal
systems is to provide something to map into and to stem the tide of
unjustified formal systems. I start by arguing that expressiveness
alone
is not a sufficient justification for a new formal system but that it
must
be justified on pragmatic grounds. I then deal with a possible
objection as might be raised by a pure mathematician and after that to
the objection that theory can be later used by more specific models. I
go on to compare two different methods of developing new formal
systems: by a priori principles and intuitions; and by post hoc
generalisation from data and examples. I briefly describe the
phenomena of “social embedding” and use it to explain the social
processes that underpin “normal” and “revolutionary” science. This
suggests social grounds for the popularity of normal science. I
characterise the “foundational” and “empirical” approaches to the use
of formal systems and situate these with respect to “normal” and
“revolutionary” modes of science. I suggest that successful sciences
(in the sense of developing relevant mappings to formal systems) bare
either more tolerant of revolutionary ideas or this tolerance is part of
the reason they are successful. I finish by enumerating a number of
‘tell-tale’ signs that a paper is presenting an unjustified formal
system.
Keywords: formal systems, modelling, science, empirical grounding, a
priori, social embeddedness, simplicity, revolutions, Kuhn, Newton,
constructivism, realism, development, philosophy of science
Accessible at:
http://cfpm.org/cpmrep75.html
Thank you.
--------------------------------------------------
Bruce Edmonds,
Centre for Policy Modelling,
Manchester Metropolitan University, Aytoun Bldg.,
Aytoun St., Manchester, M1 3GH. UK.
Tel: +44 161 247 6479 Fax: +44 161 247 6802
http://bruce.edmonds.name
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Posting to pcp-discuss@lanl.gov from Bruce Edmonds <b.edmonds@mmu.ac.uk>
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