Monday, October 30, 2006
From "Understanding Infrared Metaphysics":
“What is especially interesting about the notion of intelligibility tools, however, is again that any factor involved in experimental practice can be viewed as an aid towards the provision of understanding. Metaphysical assumptions do not necessarily hold centre stage in scientific explanations: they might do so occasionally, but the determination of which intelligibility tool is more helpful in acquiring understanding depends on the specific research context rather than on pre-existing structures for the acquisition of knowledge. In a sense, intelligibility tools are comparable to Bacon’s privileged instances. Both notions intend to capture the idea that scientific understanding can only be obtained through a series of instruments for the practical investigation of reality as we perceive it. The difference between them consists in Bacon’s characterisation of his instances as epistemic aids to the human quest for the fundamental truths of nature: ‘True induction is not completed until it reaches an affirmation’ (130). By contrast, intelligibility tools do not guarantee the achievement of a univocally true (or objective) account of what reality consist of and of how it can be explained. They further scientific understanding by allowing the scientists to gain experience about the world in different ways, thus favouring the elaboration of increasingly sophisticated theoretical interpretations for those experiences.”
// posted by H. Brown @ 11:52 PM 