Scientific Theories as Intervening Representations
ISSN: 0495-4548
Année de publication: 2006
Volumen: 21
Número: 55
Pages: 21-38
Type: Article
D'autres publications dans: Theoria: an international journal for theory, history and foundations of science
Résumé
In this paper some classical representational ideas of Hertz and Duhem are used to show how the dichotomy between representation and intervention can be overcome. More precisely, scientific theories are reconstructed as complex networks of intervening representations (or representational interventions). The formal apparatus developed is applied to elucidate various theoretical and practical aspects of the in vivo/in vitro problem of biochemistry. Moreover, adjoint situations (Galois connections) are used to explain the relation between empirical facts and theoretical laws in a new way.
Références bibliographiques
- Duhem, P. (1906). The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954
- Gierz, G.; Hofmann, K.H.; Keimel, K.; Lawson, J.D.; Mislove, M.; Scott, D.S. (2003). Continuous Lattices and Domains. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- Goldblatt, R. (1978). Topoi - The Categorial Analysis of Logic. Amsterdam and New York: North-Holland
- Hacking, I. (1983). Representing and Intervening. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- Hertz, H. (1894). The Principles of Mechanics Presented in a New Form. New York: Dover, 1956
- Ibarra, A.; Mormann, T. (1997a). Representaciones en la ciencia. De la invariancia estructural a la significatividad pragmática. Barcelona: Ediciones del Bronce
- - (1997b). "Theories as Representations", in A. Ibarra, T. Mormann (eds.), Representations of Rationality. Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of Science and the Humanities 61, Amsterdam and Atlanta, 65-92
- - (2000). "Una teoría combinatoria de la representació n científica", Crítica, vol. XXXII, N°. 95, 3-46
- Latour, B. (1999). Pandora's Hope. Essays on the Reality of Science Studies, Cambridge/Massachusetts: Harvard University Press
- Lawvere, F. W.; Schanuel, S.H. (1996). Conceptual Mathematics. A First Introduction to Categories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- Laymon, R. (1982). "Scientific Realism and the Hierarchical Counterfactual Path from Data to Theory", in P. Asquith and T. Nickles (eds.), PSA 1982, vol. 1, Philosophy of Science Association, East Lansing, 107-121
- Mac Lane, S. (1986). Mathematics. Form and Structure. New York: Springer
- Melton, A.; Schmidt, D.A.; Strecker, G.E. (1985). Galois Connections and Computer Science Applications. Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science 240. Berlin: Springer, 299-312
- Strand, R. ; Fjelland, R.; Flatmark, T. (1996). "In Vivo Interpretations of In Vitro Effect Studies with a Detailed Analysis of the Method of in vitro Transcription in Isolated Cell Nuclei", Acta Biotheoretica 44, 1-21
- Strand, R. (1999). "Towards a Useful Philosophy of Biochemistry: Sketches and Examples", Foundations of Chemistry 1, 271-294