tailieunhanh - Measuring The Intentional World

Scientific realism has been advanced as an interpretation of the natural sciences but never the behavioral sciences. This exciting book introduces a novel version of scientific realism--Measured Realism--that characterizes the kind of theoretical progress in the social and psychological sciences that is uneven but indisputable. Trout proposes a theory of measurement--Population-Guided Estimation--that connects natural, psychological, and social scientific inquiry. Presenting quantitative methods in the behavioral sciences as at once successful and regulated by the world, Measuring the Intentional World will engage philosophers of science, historians of science, sociologists of science, and scientists interested in the foundations of their own disciplines | Trout J. D. Associate Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Associate Professor Parmly Hearing Institute Loyola University Chicago Measuring the Intentional World Intentional Wocki Realism Naturalism and Quantitative Methods in the Behavioral Sciences Print publication date 1998 Published to Oxford Scholarship Online February 2006 Print ISBN-13 978-0-19-510766-1 doi Abstract Scientific realism has been advanced as an interpretation of the natural sciences but never the behavioral sciences. This book introduces a novel version of scientific realism Measured Realism that characterizes the kind of theoretical progress in the social and psychological sciences that is uneven but indisputable. It proposes a theory of measurement Population-Guided Estimation that connects natural psychological and social scientific inquiry. Presenting quantitative methods in the behavioral sciences as at once successful and regulated by the world the book will engage philosophers of science historians of science sociologists of science and scientists interested in the foundations of their own disciplines. Part I introduces measured realism beginning with a novel realist theory of measurement Population-Guided Estimation or PGE . It examines two other versions of scientific realism minimal Hacking and robust Boyd Putnam and Newton-Smith and advances measured realism as best supported by the evidence in the behavioral sciences. It also critically evaluates the anti-realist arguments of van Fraassen Laudan and Fine. Part II formulates and develops a version of epistemological naturalism most appropriate to measured realism. Drawing upon the realist theory of measurement developed earlier it favorably appraises a variety of statistical methods in the behavioral sciences against selected criticisms. It concludes that traditional narrative methods in the behavioral and social sciences are unreliable by the measures of epistemological naturalism. Keywords scientific .