Mizrahi, Moti (2020) Theoretical Virtues in Scientific Practice: An Empirical Study. [Preprint]
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Abstract
It is a common view among philosophers of science that theoretical virtues (also known as epistemic or cognitive values), such as simplicity and consistency, play an important role in scientific practice. In this paper, I set out to study the role that theoretical virtues play in scientific practice empirically. I apply the methods of data science, such as text mining and corpus analysis, to study large corpora of scientific texts in order to uncover patterns of usage. These patterns of usage, in turn, might shed some light on the role that theoretical virtues play in scientific practice. Overall, the results of this empirical study suggest that scientists invoke theoretical virtues explicitly, albeit rather infrequently, when they talk about models (less than 30%), theories (less than 20%), and hypotheses (less than 15%) in their published works. To the extent that they are mentioned in scientific publications, the results of this study suggest that accuracy, consistency, and simplicity are the theoretical virtues that scientists invoke more frequently than the other theoretical virtues tested in this study. Interestingly, however, depending on whether they talk about hypotheses, theories, or models, scientists may invoke one of those theoretical virtues more than the others.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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| Keywords: | cognitive values; corpus linguistics; data science; epistemic values; theoretical virtues; scientific practice | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Data General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism General Issues > Theory Change General Issues > Values In Science |
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| Depositing User: | Dr. Moti Mizrahi | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 01 May 2020 02:57 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 01 May 2020 02:57 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 17131 | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Data General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism General Issues > Theory Change General Issues > Values In Science |
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| Date: | 30 April 2020 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/17131 |
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