Studies in the Methodology and Foundations of Science: Selected Papers from 1951 to 1969

by Patrick Suppes

Overview

The twenty-three papers collected in tbis volume represent an important part of my published work up to the date of this volume. I have not arranged the paper chronologically, but under four main headings. Part I contains five papers on methodology concerned with models and measurement in the sciences. This part also contains the first paper I published, 'A Set of Independent Axioms for Extensive Quantities', in Portugaliae Mathematica in 1951. Part 11 also is concerned with methodology and ineludes six papers on probability and utility. It is not always easy to separate papers on probability and utility from papers on measurement, because of the elose connection between the two subjects, but Artieles 6 and 8, even though they have elose relations to measurement, seem more properly to belong in Part 11, because they are concerned with substantive questions about probability and utility. The last two parts are concerned with the foundations of physics and the foundations of psychology. I have used the term foundations rather than philosophy, because the papers are mainly concerned with specific axiomatic formulations for particular parts of physics or of psychology, and it seems to me that the termfoundations more appropriately describes such constructive axiomatic ventures. Part 111 contains four papers on the foundations of physics. The first paper deals with foundations of special relativity and the last three with the role ofprobability in quantum mechanics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789027700209
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	07/31/1969
Series:	Synthese Library , #22
Edition description:	1969
Pages:	475
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.04(d)

Table of Contents

I: Methodology: Models and Measurement.- 1. A Comparison of the Meaning and Uses of Models in Mathematics and the Empirical Sciences (1960).- 2. Models of Data (1962).- 3. A Set of Independent Axioms for Extensive Quantities (1951).- 4. Foundational Aspects of Theories of Measurement (1958).- 5. Measurement, Empirical Meaningfulness, and Three-Valued Logic (1959).- II: Methodology: Probability and Utility.- 6. The Role of Subjective Probability and Utility in Decision-Making (1956).- 7. The Philosophical Relevance of Decision Theory (1961).- 8. An Axiomatization of Utility Based on the Notion of Utility Differences (1955).- 9. Behavioristic Foundations of Utility (1961).- 10. Some Formal Models of Grading Principles (1966).- 11. Probabilistic Inference and the Concept of Total Evidence (1966).- III: Foundations of Physics.- 12. Axioms for Relativistic Kinematics with or without Parity (1959).- 13. Probability Concepts in Quantum Mechanics (1961).- 14. The Role of Probability in Quantum Mechanics (1963).- 15. The Probabilistic Argument for a Nonclassical Logic of Quantum Mechanics (1966).- IV: Foundations of Psychology.- 16. Stimulus-Sampling Theory for a Continuum of Responses (1960).- 17. On an Example of Unpredictability in Human Behavior (1964).- 18. Behaviorism (1965).- 19. On the Behavioral Foundations of Mathematical Concepts (1965).- 20. Towards a Behavioral Foundation of Mathematical Proofs (1965).- 21. The Psychological Foundations of Mathematics (1967).- 22. On the Theory of Cognitive Processes (1966).- 23. Stimulus-Response Theory of Finite Automata (1969).- References.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.