Modelling the truth of scientific beliefs with cultural evolutionary theory.
Evolutionary anthropologists and archaeologists have been considerably successful in modelling the cumulative evolution of culture, of technological skills and knowledge in particular. Recently, one of these models has been introduced in the philosophy of science by De Cruz and De Smedt (Philos Stud...
| Publicado en: | Synthese Vol. 191; no. 1; pp. 109 - 126 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Springer Nature
Jan2014
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=94095468&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 94095468 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00397857 4LI jtl: Synthese issn: 00397857 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jan2014 vid: 191 iid: 1 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 94095468 10.1007/s11229-013-0257-5 ppf: 109 ppct: 17 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 328KB tig: atl: Modelling the truth of scientific beliefs with cultural evolutionary theory. aug: au: Vaesen, Krist Houkes, Wybo affil: Philosophy & Ethics, University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven The Netherlands su: Social evolution Anthropologists Archaeologists Scientists Empirical research Multiagent systems sug: subj: Social evolution Anthropologists Archaeologists Scientists Empirical research Multiagent systems ab: Evolutionary anthropologists and archaeologists have been considerably successful in modelling the cumulative evolution of culture, of technological skills and knowledge in particular. Recently, one of these models has been introduced in the philosophy of science by De Cruz and De Smedt (Philos Stud 157:411-429, ), in an attempt to demonstrate that scientists may collectively come to hold more truth-approximating beliefs, despite the cognitive biases which they individually are known to be subject to. Here we identify a major shortcoming in that attempt: De Cruz & De Smedt's mathematical model makes one particularly strong tractability assumption that causes the model to largely miss its target (namely, truth accumulation in science), and that moreover conflicts with empirical observations. The second, more constructive part of the paper presents an alternative, agent-based model, which allows one to much better examine the conditions for scientific progress and decline. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Synthese is a copyright of Springer, 2014. All Rights Reserved. item: Synthese holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2014 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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