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Computational Models in the Philosophy of Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Paul Thagard
Paul Thagard*
Affiliation:
Princeton University
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Extract

This paper is a summary of my oral presentation at PSA 86. Since that presentation was in turn a summary of views that will appear in great detail elsewhere (Thagard forthcoming), I shall be very brief here. My aim is to outline how computational models can provide the same benefits to the philosophy of science that they currently provide to cognitive psychology. I shall begin by situating an enterprise that I call computational philosophy of science in relation to the more familiar fields of historical philosophy of science, artificial intelligence, and cognitive psychology. After some general remarks about the use of computational models, I shall describe a particular model of problem solving and learning that has been used to simulate the discovery and justification of the wave theory of sound.

Type
Part IX. Epistemology
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1986 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1986 , 1986 , pp. 329 - 335
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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