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seccion monografica: theoria experimentorum

1. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
José Ferreiros, Javier Ordoñez

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2. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
Allan Franklin

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In this paper I examine the roles that experiment plays in science. Experiment can test theories, but it can also call for a new theory. Experiment can also provide hints about the mathematical form of a theory. Likewise it can provide evidence for the existence of the entities involved in our theories. Finally, it may also have a life of its own, independent of theory. I will illustrate these roles using episodes from the history of contemporary physics. I will also discuss an epistemology of experiment, a set of strategies that provides grounds for reasonable belief in experimental results.
3. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
Jed Z. Buchwald

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Debate among scientists is frequently hampered by intense difficulties in communicating and translating their viewpoints. This well-known fact illustrates the role of unarticulated core knowledge in the activities of sientific communities. But it has been little noticed that the issue afficts not just written science, but especially traditions of experimental activity and their products, including instruments and techniques. The question is addressed on the basis of examples from the history of optics and electromagnetism - Fresnel and Brewster, Maxwell and Hertz - and texts from Kuhn's Structure. Particular attention is paid to interrelations between succeeding theories, and to the notorious problem of theory-choice.
4. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
María Jesús Santesmases

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We study twentieth-century biological sciences as experimental sciences by historically reconstructing the uses of experiments. Concepts like artificial, natural, and inventions, are handled so as to show how much current biological thought has been constructed on the basis of the invention of different kinds of experiments, instruments, and technical devices, experimental systems, and ideas concerning the fonctioning of nature. It is suggested that the frontier that may separate the natural from the artificial has already been crossed. Human intervention in the natural phenomena through reproducible experiments hints to a view of current biological knowledge as a permanent invention of nature.
5. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
Friedrich Steinle

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The more unknowns there are and the newer a field of research is, the less well defined are the experiments. Once a field has been sufficiently worked over so that the possible conclusions are more or less limited to existence or nonexistence, and perhaps to quantitative determination, the experiments will become increasingly better defined. But they will no longer be independent, because they are carried along by a system of earlier experiments and decisions, which is generally the situation in physics and chemistry today. Such a system will then become self-evident know-how itself. We will no longer be aware of its application and effect (Fleck 1935 (1980), p. 114, translation slightly altered from Fleck 1979, p. 86, original emphasis).
6. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
Marisa Velasco

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Computational simulations are now useful tools in experimental life. Their novelty and continuous development make it very difficult to understand their epistemic relevance. In this paper a first evaluation of them is presented through a parallel between thought experiments and computational simulations. Both simulations that play the role of actual experiment and also simulations that are part of experiments will be under scrutiny, since both of them are important in the understanding of contemporary experiments. But simulations as parts of actual experiments can especially show a new face in the complex relation theory-experiment.

articulos / articles

7. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
Valeriano Iranzo

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According to van Fraassen, constructive empiricism (CE) makes better sense of scientific activity than scientific realism (SR). I discuss a recent episode in biomedical research - investigations about Helicobacter Pylori and its relation to peptic ulcer. CE's expedient to cope with it is a sort of belief substitution. I argue that replacing realist beliefs by empiricist surrogates (as-if beliefs) could accommodate scientists' expectations and behavior. Nonetheless, theoretical agnosticism could hardly motivate scientists to focus just on the observational consequences derived from the theory at issue. Contrary to van Fraassen, I conclude then that, concerning scientific practice, realist beliefs cannot be considered as a gratuitious surplus which should be rejected.
8. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
Diana I. Perez

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In this paper I shall carefully examine some recent arguments for dualism. These arguments presuppose a strong version of physicalism that I consider inappropriate. I shall try to show that, if we reformulate the thesis of physicalism according to Kim's view of physicalism (in terms of the supervenience relation), there is a third option, a version of type physicalism, where physicalism and quaiia could be conciliated. In order to sketch this option, I shall consider the main argument against type physicalism: the explanatory gap argument, and two arguments that Kim mentions against physicalism: the inverted spectrum / zombies argument and the intrinsicality argument. I shall try to show that these three arguments depend upon a misconception of the nature of our ordinary mental concepts.

in memoriam

9. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
Jean-Louis Gardies

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recensiones / book reviews

10. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
Valeriano Iranzo

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11. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
David Teira

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12. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2

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cronicas y proximas reuniones / notices and announcements

13. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2

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14. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2

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