PhilSci Archive

Interpretation and equivalence; or, equivalence and interpretation

Dewar, Neil (2017) Interpretation and equivalence; or, equivalence and interpretation. [Preprint]

WarningThere is a more recent version of this item available.
[img]
Preview
Text
EI-2.pdf

Download (265kB) | Preview

Abstract

Philosophers of science spend a lot of time “interpreting” scientific theories. In this paper, I try to get a handle on what it is they might be up to. My main contention is that a certain picture of interpretation is widespread (though implicit) in contemporary philosophy of science: a picture according to which interpretation of theories is relevantly analogous to the interpretation of foreign literature. On this picture, which we might call the external account of theory-interpretation, meaning is to be imported into the equations by putting them in correspondence with some discourse whose signs and symbols are already endowed with significance. However, there is an alternative way of thinking about interpretation—what we can call the “internal” account of interpretation—which instead takes interpretation to be a matter of delineating a theory’s internal semantic architecture.


Export/Citation: EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL
Social Networking:
Share |

Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Dewar, Neilneil.dewar@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
Keywords: Interpretation; theoretical equivalence
Subjects: General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics
General Issues > Structure of Theories
Depositing User: Neil Dewar
Date Deposited: 21 Jul 2017 13:47
Last Modified: 21 Jul 2017 13:47
Item ID: 13234
Subjects: General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics
General Issues > Structure of Theories
Date: 10 March 2017
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/13234

Available Versions of this Item

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item