Publication details
Zkušenost setrvale provokovaná teorií
| Title in English | Experience continuously provoked by theory |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2010 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Ernst Mach: Fyzika, filosofie, vzdělávání |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | Fulltext |
| Field | Philosophy and religion |
| Keywords | sense data;; inductivism; prediction; explanation; metaphysics; quantification; atom; experience; reductionism; esoterism |
| Attached files | |
| Description | To remember the worldly famous physicist Ernst Mach during his jubilee year was the motivation of this short essay. Mach’s book on mechanics asserted that the basis of all scientific knowledge and its concepts consist of sense experience. He thus wanted to sidestep metaphysics, not wanting to explain anything but describing all phenomena on the basis of elemental sense impressions traced by means of attentive observation. This contribution pays attention to the historically preceding intellectual tradition. Quoting real examples it shows that we are able to predict from models which, in reality, must function in some other way, or again, we well know that contemporary science also works with concepts being vehicles of meanings totally outside of any illustrative experience. Three questions have been asked here: 1) From the viewpoint of “sense data” (and inductivism) do we not act foolishly? 2) Is the rising amazement concerning the results of science legitimate? 3) If in the past theories followed practice, isn’t the contemporary sequence reversed? |