Proceedings of the Boston Colloquium for the Philosophy of Science 1964/1966

This third volume of Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science contains papers which are based upon Colloquia from 1964 to 1966. In most cases, they have been substantially modified subsequent to presentation and discussion. Once again we publish work which goes beyond technical analysis of scientific theories and explanations in order to include philo­ sophical reflections upon the history of science and also upon the still problematic interactions between metaphysics and science. The philo­ sophical history of scientific ideas has increasingly been recognized as part of the philosophy of science, and likewise the cultural context of the genesis of such ideas. There is no school or attitude to be taken as de­ fining the scope or criteria of our Colloquium, and so we seek to under­ stand both analytic and historical aspects of science. This volume, as the previous two, constitutes a substantial part of our final report to the U. S. National Science Foundation, which has continued its support of the Boston Colloquium for the Philosophy of Science by a grant to Boston University. That report will be concluded by a subse­ quent volume of these Studies. It is a pleasure to record our thanks to the Foundation for its confidence and funds. We dedicate this book to the memory of Norwood Russell Hanson. During this academic year of 1966-67, this beloved and distinguished American philosopher participated in our Colloquium, and he did so before.

Inhalt

The Early Modern Revolution in Science and Philosophy.- Taxonomy and Information.- On the Elementarity of Measurement in General Relativity: toward a General Theory.- Symposium on Innate Ideas.- Recent Contributions to the Theory of Innate Ideas.- The 'Innateness Hypothesis' and Explanatory Models in Linguistics.- The Epistemological Argument.- Natural Kinds.- Metaphysics as Heuristic for Science.- Comments.- Rationalism and the Physical World.- On the Foundations of Probability Theory.- Comments.- Elementarity and Reality in Particle Physics (with an exchange of letters between E. K. Gora and W. Heisenberg).- Comments.- Semantic Sources of the Concept of Law.- Science in Flux: Footnotes to Popper.- Comments.- Conceptual Revolutions in Science.- Comments.- The Center of the World.- Comments: Analytic Premises and Existential Conclusions.- On the Improvement of the Sciences and Arts, and the possible Identity of the Two.- Comments: Acute Proliferitis.- Comments.- Comments: Illustration vs. Experimental Test.- Logic as Calculus and Logic as Language.- Three Studies in the Philosophy of Space and Time.- What I Don't Believe.