نوع مقاله : پژوهشی

نویسندگان

1 عضو هیأت علمی گروه فلسفه علم دانشگاه صنعتی شریف

2 دانشجوی دکتری فلسفه علم و فناوری، گروه فلسفه علم، دانشگاه صنعتی شریف

چکیده

فلاسفۀ علم، اعم از رئالیست و آنتی‌رئالیست، از اوایل قرن بیستم، عمدتاً با انگیزۀ غلبه بر برخی مسائل در فرایند فهم علم (بالاخص برخی مسائل جدّی که از واقعیّاتی چون تغییر متوالی و عمیق نظریه‌های علمی ناشی می‌شدند)، گرایش ویژه‌ای به ‌مفهوم "ساختار" نشان داده‌اند. در این راستا، تاکنون انواع مختلف "ساختارگرایی" حول این باور شکل گرفته‌اند که علم صرفاً قادر است از ‌ساختار جهان (و نه از ابعاد هستی‌شناختی اشیاء آن) پرده‌ بر‌‌دارد. با این‌حال، همۀ ساختارگرایی‌ها با نقد بسیار مهمّ و جدّی به‌نام "نقد نیومن" مواجه شده‌اند که طبق آن اگر قرار باشد ساختار حداکثر چیزی باشد که ما از جهان می‌دانیم، در آن صورت کلِّ چیزی که عملاً از جهان خواهیم دانست جز کاردینالیتی، یعنی تعداد اشیاء مربوط، نخواهد بود.
نظر ‌به جایگاه ویژۀ ساختارگرایی در فلسفۀ علم و همچنین عمق و جدّیت نقد نیومن، ما در این مقاله قصد داریم ضمن معرفی ساختارگراییِ علمیِ رئالیستی و نیز آنتی‌رئالیستی، پاسخ آنها به این نقد را مورد برّرسی ‌و ارزیابی قرار دهیم. نتایج این برّرسی حکایت از ناتوانی یا لااقل مسئله‌داری جدّی هر دوی این ساختارگرایی‌ها در تدارک پاسخی رضایت‌بخش به چالش نیومن دارد: ناتوانی و مسئله‌داری که عمدتاً ریشه در همان ماهیّت و مبانی ساختارگرایانۀ این مکاتب دارد.

کلیدواژه‌ها

عنوان مقاله [English]

Scientific Structuralism and Newman’s Objection

نویسندگان [English]

  • Javad Akbari Takhtameshlou 1
  • Seyed Mehdi Hosseini Nasab 2

1 Member of the Faculty of Philosophy of Science, Sharif University of Technology

2 PhD student in Philosophy of Science and Technology, Sharif University of Technology

چکیده [English]

Since the beginning of the 20th century, philosophers of science—both realist and anti-realist—have shown a special tendency toward the concept of ‘structure’, mainly to address certain problems in the process of understanding science (particularly some serious problems arising from successive and deep changes in scientific theories over time). In this regard, different forms of ‘structuralism’ have been developed thus far around the belief that science is only capable of revealing the structure of the world (and not the ontological characteristics of its objects). However, all structuralisms have been subjected to a very serious criticism known as ‘Newman's objection’, which states that if structure is supposed to be the most we know about the world, then the only thing we will actually know about the world is cardinality, i.e., the number of related objects.
Given the importance of structuralism in the philosophy of science as well as the seriousness of Newman's objection, the goal of this paper is to introduce both realist and anti-realist scientific structuralism and examine and evaluate how successfully they respond to this criticism. The findings of this examination suggest that both of these structuralisms are incapable or at least substantially problematic in answering Newman's objection, mostly due to their structuralist nature and underlying ideas.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

  • realist structuralism
  • Newman's objection
  • Ramseyfication of theories
  • empiricist structuralism
  • van Fraassen
  • Putnam's paradox
Ainsworth, P. M. (2009), ‘Newman’s Objection’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 60(1):135–71.
Alai, M. (2017), ‘The Debates on Scientific Realism Today: Knowledge and Objectivity in Science’, in E. Agazzi, Varieties of Scientific Realism:19–48.
Anderson, David Leech (1993), ‘What Is The Model-Theoretic Argument?’, The Journal of Philosophy  90 (6):311–322.
Bueno, O. (2017), ‘Empricism’, in J. Saatsi, The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Scientific Realism, Routledge:96–107.
Bueno, O., and Meier, T. (2019), ‘Structuralism, Empiricism, and Newman’s Objection’, Principia 23(1):53–67
Frigg, R. and Votsis, I. (2011), ‘Everything you always wanted to know about structural realism but were afraid to ask’, Euro Jnl Phil Sci Vol.1:227–276.
French, S., and Ladyman, J. (2003), ‘Remodelling Structural Realism: Quantum Physics and the Metaphysics of Structure’, Synthese 136:31–56.
French, S., and Ladyman, J. (2011), ‘In Defence of Ontic Structural Realism’, in Alisa Bokulich and Peter Bokulich (eds.), Scientific Structuralism, Dordrecht,Springer:25–42.
French, S. (2014), The Structure of the World:Metaphysics and Representation, Oxford University press.

Frisch, Mathias (1999), ‘Van Fraassen's Dissolution of Putnam's Model-Theoretic Argument’, Philosophy of Science 66(1):158–164.

Ghins, M. (2011), ‘Models, Truth and Realism:Assessing Bas van Fraassen's Views on Scientific Representation’, Manuscrito 34(1):207–232.
Iranzo, V. (2014), ‘Models and Phenomena:Bas van Fraassen’s Empiricist Structuralism’, in W. J. Gonzalez (ed.), Bas van Fraassen’s Approach to Representation and Models in Science, Springer:63–76.
Ladyman, J. (1998), ‘What is Structural Realism?’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 29:409–24.
Ladyman, J., Bueno, O., Sua´rez M., and van Fraassen, B. (2011), ‘Scientific Representation:A Long Journey from Pragmatics to Pragmatics’, Metascience 20:417–442.
Melia, J., and Saatsi, J. (2006), ‘Ramseyfication and Theoretical Content’, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Vol.57(3): 561–585.
Nguyen, James (2016), ‘On the Pragmatic Equivalence between Representing Data and Phenomena’, Philosophy of science, Vol.83(2):171–191.
Newman, M. H. A. (1928), ‘Mr. Russell’s “Causal Theory of Perception’”, Mind 37:137–48.
Putnam, Hilary (1978), Meaning and the Moral Sciences, London:Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Putnam, Hilary (1994), Words and Life, Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press.
Putnam, Hilary (1983), Philosophical Papers III:Realism and Reason, Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.
Ruyant, Quentin (2019), ‘Structural Realism or Modal Empiricism?’, The British Journal for the Philosophy 70:1051–1072.
Redhead, M. (2001), ‘Quests of a Realist’, Metascience 10:341–7.
van Fraassen, B. (1997), ‘Putnam’s Paradox:Metaphysical Realism Revamped and Evaded’, Philosophical Perspectives 11:17–42.
van Fraassen, B. (2008), Scientific Representation: Paradoxes of Perspective, Oxford:Oxford University Press.
van Fraassen, B. (2010a), ‘Book Symposium: Scientific Representation:Paradoxes of Perspective’, Analysis 70(3):511–514
van Fraassen, B. (2010b), ‘Reply to Contessa, Ghins and Healey’, Analysis 70:547–556.
Votsis, I. (2017), ‘Structural realism and its variants’, in J. Saatsi (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Scientific Realism, Routledge:108–119.
Yudell, Z. (2010), ‘Melia and Saatsi on Structural Realism’, Synthese 175:241–53.
Worrall, John (1989), ‘Structural Realism:The Best of Both Worlds?’, Dialectica 43(1-2):99–124.