Is observation mathematically-laden?
In this article, we will defend an epistemological claim: that observation is mathematically-laden. A well-known thesis in the philosophy of science is that observation is theory-laden. The claim that observation is mathematically laden can be partially seen as an analogous argument. The first pa...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
2013-04-01
|
| Series: | Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology |
| Online Access: | https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/principia/article/view/27101 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | In this article, we will defend an epistemological claim: that observation is mathematically-laden. A well-known thesis in the philosophy of science is that observation is theory-laden. The claim that observation is mathematically laden can be partially seen as an analogous argument.
The first part of the paper focuses on the definition of mathematically-ladeness and its relations to the best-known problem of theory-ladeness.
The second part of the paper presents some explicit examples and outlines the consequences and the difficulties of this epistemological limit.
Finally a specific context for this problem is discussed in details: we will analyze the question of deterministic chaos as a paradigmatic example of mathematically-ladeness and shows that the deterministic or indeterministic nature of chaos is strongly linked to the choice of a particular mathematical description.
|
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1808-1711 |