Taming theory with thought experiments: Understanding and scientific progress
Section snippets
Two tests of understanding
The following two tests can be identified in many fields of study.
In the first, we are asked to demonstrate a grasp of the meaning of a concept, idea, or theory. This type of test may come in the form of true/false questions, matching questions, multiple choice questions, definition questions, short answer questions, or (the first half of) an essay. Consider a few examples:
- 1)
True or false? A valid argument must have all true premises.
- 2)
Which of the following is not one of Aristotle's four causes?
- 3)
Maxwell's (original) demon: pass
Maxwell's demon does not appear with Maxwell's now-famous papers on statistical thermodynamics (Maxwell, 1860a, Maxwell, 1860b, Maxwell, 1860c, Maxwell, 1860d, Maxwell, 1861, Maxwell, 1866). Rather, the demon first appears in an 1867 letter from Maxwell to Peter Guthrie Tait, and then again in a letter to J. W. Strutt in 1869. The thought experiment containing the demon is then published in A Theory of Heat, in 1871, a book whose aim is “to exhibit the scientific connexion of the various steps
Meaningfulness, fruitfulness and progress
Meaningfulness is necessary for progress because new ideas and experimental results do not tell us what they mean. No new idea will put itself into relation with our other ideas and experiences for us. We must always perform some interpretive action, however slight, whenever we are faced with a new piece of theory or empirical datum, whether as a student or as a scientist. Sometimes this action will be easy and automatic, and other times it will be difficult and require years of work and
Acknowledgements
I'd like to thank Nancy Nersessian, John D. Norton, Yiftach Fehige, James R. Brown, Joseph Berkovitz, Marco Buzzoni, Catherine Elgin, Sören Häggqvist, Kenneth Westphal, Hans Radder, Martin Carrier, Elke Brendel, Nenad Miščević, Marcel Weber, Matthias Unterhuber, Maël Pégny, Agnes Bolinska, Andrew Inkpen, Leonardo Bich, Carol Cleland, Aaron Wright, Greg Lusk, Cory Lewis, and two anonymous referees for many helpful comments, as well as audiences at the Universities of Toronto, Macerata, Bonn,
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