Theoretical term
With theoretical term or theoretical term is in the philosophy of science , a term understood who belongs to the theoretical language of an empirical science. The analysis of the role of these terms within empirical-scientific theories and their traceability to terms of the observation language in which observations are noted play an important role , especially for the development of logical empiricism towards today's analytical philosophy .
The distinction between theoretical language and observation language
In logical empiricism, Rudolf Carnap introduced a division into theoretical language - in which the theory is formulated - and observation language - in which the observation results made to test the theory are noted. It was initially assumed that ultimately all theoretical terms can be reduced to the language of observation.
The distinction between theoretical and observation language was later attacked by Paul Feyerabend as questionable.
Joseph Sneed introduced the term T-theoretical within his structuralist theory concept, which takes into account criticisms such as those expressed in particular by Hilary Putnam . An absolute marking of terms as “theoretical” is then rejected; but a criterion is given according to which a term can be distinguished as “theoretical” (T-theoretical) relative to a given theory. A term can therefore be “theoretical” with respect to one theory and “non-theoretical” with respect to another theory.
The non-traceability of theoretical concepts
One of the most important results of the philosophy of science of the 20th century was the discovery by Carnap and others that there are theoretical concepts for which tracing back to the language of observation is extremely problematic. These terms include dispositional terms (e.g. terms that end in “–lich” such as “water soluble”), metric terms (e.g. “ mass ”) and also terms such as “ electron ” and “ wave function ”.
Methods are known - (Carnap's reduction theorem , Craig's theorem , formation of the Ramsey theorem ) - with which theoretical terms can be eliminated insofar as these methods allow a new theory formulated in a pure observation language to be derived from an original theory with theoretical terms construct which has the same empirical content as the original theory with the theoretical terms. However, the methods known so far all have serious disadvantages, insofar as the theories that arise in the language of observation are, for various reasons, not manageable and inexpedient in everyday scientific work.
For example, the construction using Craig's Theorem delivers a theory without theoretical terms, but in nontrivial cases it has an infinite number of axioms. These methods are therefore more of scientific theory than practical interest. It is therefore often said that theoretical terms cannot be traced back to the language of observation. However, this statement is not based on logically compelling reasons, but ultimately on considerations of expediency that affect the practical work of scientists.
As a result, this means: "The attempt to define theoretical quantities by reducing them to what can be observed has completely failed."
Consequences of the different solution approaches
The discovery that science practically cannot get by without such theoretical terms that cannot (or only partially) be defined in the language of observation, had far-reaching significance. This made it clear that the meaning criterion established by Logical Empiricism for scientific theories in its original form, according to which all statements of a theory must in principle be directly verifiable or - in a weakened version - at least the terms contained therein can be traced back to terms of the observation language , is not durable. Carnap then proposed a modified criterion of meaning for empirical theories. Accordingly, statements that contain such theoretical terms that cannot be defined in the observation language and therefore cannot be checked directly are allowed, but only insofar as these theoretical terms are relevant to predictions. In other words, the theory as a whole must make more testable predictions through the introduction of such a term than if one omitted this term. Not least because of the theoretical terms, some analytical philosophers also take the view that this modified criterion of meaning is better to be understood as a criterion of demarcation between empirical sciences and metaphysics, without the latter having to be viewed as meaningless in principle. Just as one can use the theoretical term "electron" meaningfully in empirical theories, one can also use terms such as e. B. Discuss "The Absolute" in a meaningful way. The problem of theoretical terms has thus contributed greatly to the fact that many old metaphysical questions, which were initially rejected as pseudo-problems in logical empiricism, are now being discussed again in analytical philosophy in a modified form and on a new basis.
literature
- Rudolf Carnap: The logical structure of the world , Berlin-Schlachtensee 1928. New edition Hamburg 1998. ISBN 978-3-7873-1464-5 .
- Rudolf Carnap: Logical Syntax of Language , Vienna 1934, 2nd edition 1968.
- Rudolf Carnap: Philosophical Foundations of Physics , New York 1966
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rudolf Carnap, Observational Language and Theoretical Language. Dialectica, 12, 236-248 (1958).
- ↑ Andreas Kamlah: Meta laws and theory-independent meaning of physical terms. Journal of General Theory of Science , 1978 (IX), p. 47.
- ^ Paul Feyerabend: The problem of the existence of theoretical entities, in: Ernst Topitsch (ed.): Problems of the theory of science. Festschrift for Viktor Kraft . Vienna 1960.
- ↑ W. Stegmüller, main currents of the contemporary philosophy. Volume II, Chapter III.4 (JD Sneed et al .: The structuralist concept of theories. ), 8th edition 1987.
- ^ Siegfried Macho: Science and pseudoscience in psychology. Hogrefe, Bern 2016 ( ISBN 978-3-456-85616-2 ), p. 39