Building Theories

Presents innovative strategies to manage and build software systems for generating new knowledge from large archaeological data sets

Describes new findings and models concerning the construction of theories and hypotheses in science

Brings together both normative and descriptive perspectives on the question of theory construction

Explores novel perspectives on the uses of models, inferences, and heuristic reasoning in theory-building

Develops a set of principles for how theories are constructed and refined

With a close examination of case studies in logic, mathematics, physics, biology, and psychology

Describes new findings and models concerning the construction of theories and hypotheses in science Brings together both normative and descriptive perspectives on the question of theory construction Explores novel perspectives on the uses of models, inferences, and heuristic reasoning in theory-building Uses case studies in logic, mathematics, physics, biology, and psychology to develop a set of principles for how theories are constructed and refined

Inhalt

Building theories: The heuristic way.- Building theories: Strategies not blueprints.- Richer than reduction.- Theory building as problem solving.- Discovering cures in medicine.- The product guides the process: Discovering disease mechanisms.- Take the case of a Geometer: Mathematical analogies and building theories in Aristotle.- Activation of the eddy mental schema, multiple analogies and their heuristic cooperation in the historical development of fluid dynamics.- Heuristic logic: A kernel.- The noetic account of scientific progress and the factivity of understanding.- Rhythms, retention and protention: Philosophical reflections on geometrical schemata for biological time.