סמינר מחקר 22 באוקטובר: Yafeng Shan - A New Functional Approach to Scientific Progress

A New Functional Approach to Scientific Progress

Alexander Bird distinguishes three approaches to characterising scientific progress: the epistemic approach, the semantic approach, and the functional-internalist approach. The epistemic approach defines progress in terms of knowledge. The semantic approach defines progress in terms of truth or verisimilitude. The functional-internalist approach construes progress in terms of the function of scientific practice. The recent debate concerning the nature of scientific progress focuses on the epistemic and semantic approaches. The functional approach seems to be taken for granted indefensible. However, this view is unfair and unjustified. This paper aims to develop and defend a new functional approach to scientific progress, in which scientific progress is defined in terms of the usefulness of the problem-defining and problem-solving. I argue that science progresses if more useful research problems and their corresponding solutions are proposed. I illustrate and defend my account by applying to the history of genetics. Finally, I highlight the advantages of my new functional approach over the epistemic and semantic approaches.