Scientific Understanding

Davies, E Brian (2006) Scientific Understanding.

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Abstract

Many of those actively involved in the physical sciences adopt a reductionist point of view, in which all aspects of the world are ultimately controlled by physical laws that are expressed in terms of mathematical equations. In this article we adopt a pluralistic approach to human understanding in which mathematically expressed laws of nature are merely one way among several of describing a world that is too vast and complex for our minds to be able to grasp in its entirety.

Keywords:reductionism, Kant, Platonism, pluralism, epistemology
Subjects:General Issues: Models and Idealization
General Issues: Laws of Nature
Specific Sciences: Mathematics
General Issues: Reductionism/Holism
General Issues: Explanation
Specific Sciences: Physics
ID Code:2952
Deposited By:Davies, E Brian
Deposited On:08 October 2006

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