AFOS
Association for the Foundations of Science, Language and Cognition
AFOS is an international professional association of both working scientists
and theorists of science, language and cognition who seek to learn how
well founded knowledge of the states of affairs and processes surrounding
us can be achieved and communicated in a systematic, applicable and improvable
form. The association has a number of purposes. Principal among these is
to bring together scientists and those interested in scientific method
to discuss foundational issues in a precise and rigorous manner. AFOS will
engage in all the forms of activity typical for scientific associations:
conferences, workshops, publications, sponsoring and/or supervising specific
research projects. For more info about the aims, see the Constitution
of AFOS.
Full membership is be open to qualified scientists, theorists of science,
and philosophers who are in sympathy with the objectives of the Association.
Contents:
News
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You can now participate in the AFOS e-mail
debate on reductionism, which starts from two
texts, by Grzegorz Bialkowski and Steven Weinberg.
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Call for Papers: Prof. Fritz Rohrlich is in charge of collecting
and processing the contributions by AFOS members to the TWCP next August.
The deadline for manuscripts is November 15, '97, and therefore this reminder
for people who wish to contribute.Three copies of the paper (less than
2500 words) including an abstract (less than 100 words) should reach Prof.
Rohrlich by November 15, 1997 at:
Prof. Fritz Rohrlich, Department of Physics, Syracuse University, Syracuse,
NY 13244-1130, USA.
Letters of acceptance will go out March 1st, 1998. These letters can
then be used for applications to get local support.
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Recent developments are discussed in the May
1997 issue of the AFOS newsletter, including the
First
Summer School for Theory of Knowledge organized under auspices of AFOS
which will be held in Warsaw-Madralin, 16 - 31 August this year, the organization
of two AFOS sessions at the 1998 20th World
Congress of Philosophy, and activities of the AFOS Regional Groups.
An affiliated AFOS-meeting is planned to take place during the 20th Intl.
Wittgenstein
Symposium.
About this Web site
We would like to invite all members of AFOS to send us suggestions about
the content of this WWW site. In particular we would like to receive information
about links that we could make with AFOS related www pages, such that the
AFOS WWW site can function as a continuously updated forum of information
for our AFOS members and regional AFOS groups. We especially invite the
chairpersons of the AFOS regional groups:
if they have their own www page, to send us this address so that pages
can be linked to the AFOS main www site.
if they do not have their own www page, a special page can be made for
them on this site. In this case the regional groups should send us the
material, preferably already ordered and structured in such a way as it
should be for the construction of their www page (compare to the structure
of the main AFOS site).
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE of AFOS
President: Ryszard Wojcicki (Poland): afos@plearn.edu.pl
Vice-President: Paul
Humphreys (USA): pwh2a@virginia.edu
Secretary: Diederik Aerts (Belgium):
diraerts@vub.ac.be
Executive Committee :
The President, Vice-President, and the Executive Committee deal with and
coordinate the business of AFOS.
HOW TO JOIN AFOS
All scientists as well as all theorists and philosophers of science who
believe that foundational problems of science deserve to be systematically
studied and discussed are kindly invited to join AFOS. Note please that
AFOS does not have a rigid organizational structure. Rather, it is a community
of people who share interest in specific problems and join in specific
activities. The communication among the members of AFOS is kept via this
web-site, via the AFOS-newsletter which is distributed electronically and
via FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE, the official journal of AFOS.
All who wish to join AFOS should sent a short bio-sketch (not more than
150 words) to the Secretary of AFOS, Diederik AERTS (diraerts@vub.ac.be).
The bio-sketch should contain both electronic and regular address for communication.
It should also list those scientific activities (publications in particular)
which prove that the candidate satisfies the requirements of the Constitution
of AFOS. The candidates whose applications are accepted by the Executive
Committee of the Association will be listed in the Directory of AFOS.
Only those candidates who have a direct electronic address can be accepted
as FULL MEMBERS of the Association. People who do not have a direct access
to interenet, but they can be reached electronically via a full member
of AFOS who explicitly agrees to act as a go-in-between might apply for
ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP.
AFOS mailing lists
Two electronic mailing lists have been created at the Free University of
Brussels, to facilitate the communication among members of AFOS: afos@listserv.vub.ac.be
(for announcements) and afos-wg@listserv.vub.ac.be (for discussions). The
mailing lists are open to new subscriptions. To subscribe one has to proceed
in the following way: send an e-mail message to the address majordomo@listserv.vub.ac.be
leaving the subject field of the message empty and writing in the text
field either:
subscribe afos
end
(subscription to the announcements list) or
subscribe afos-wg
end
(subscription to the discussion list)
Specific questions about the mailing lists can be directed to Diederik
Aerts (diraerts@vub.ac.be)
FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE
Foundations of Science (FOS) is the name of the official journal of AFOS.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Executive Editors
Paul Humphreys,
Philosophy Department, 521 Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
VA 22903, USA.
Phone: (804) 924 - 6921.
E-mail: pwh2a@virginia.edu
Ryszard Wójcicki
(Editor-in-Chief), Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish
Academy of Sciences, Nowy Swiat 72, 00-330 Warszawa, Poland.
Telefax: (48-2) 635-4038.
E-mail: iandi@plearn.edu.pl
Advisory Editors
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Diederik Aerts, Dept. of Theoretical Physics (TENA), Vrije Universiteit
Brussels, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, BELGIUM. E-mail: diraerts@vub.ac.be
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Nancy Delaney Cartwright, Philosophy Dept., London School of Economics,
Houghton St., London WC2A 2AE, ENGLAND. E-mail: cartwrig@vax.lse.uk
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Maria Luisa Dalla Chiara, Dipartimento di Filosofia, Universita Degli Studi
di Firenze, Via Bolognese 52, 50139 Firenze, ITALY. E-mail: dachiara@vm.idg.fi.cnr.it
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Allan Franklin, Dept. of Physics,Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309,
USA. E-mail: Franklin\_a@cubldr.colorado.edu
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Michael Heller, Vatican Observatory, V-00120 VATICAN CITY STATE.
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Andrzej Lewenstam, Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Abo Akademi University,
Biskopsgatan 8, SF -- 20500, Abo -- Turku, FINLAND. E-mail alewenst@aton.abo.fi
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Fritz Rohrlich, Dept. of Physics, Syracuse Univ., Syracuse, NY 13244-1130,
USA. E-mail: rohrlich@suhep.phy.syr.edu
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Patrick Suppes, Lucie Stern Prof. of Philosophy Stanford University, 678
Mirada Ave., Stanford, CA 943005, USA E-mail: suppes@csli.stanford.edu
Phone; (o) (415) 725 6030 (h) (415) 321 6594; Fax: (415) 7230758
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Bastian C. van Fraassen, Dept. of Philosophy, Princeton University, 1879
Hall, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA E-mail: fraassen@pucc.princeton.edu Phone:
(609) 924-4329
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Jan Zytkow, Computer Science Department, Wichita State University, Wichita,
KS, 67260-0083, USA.
Assistant Editors:
Sergiusz Pukas, Anna Szczesna, Jacek Urbaniec, 00-953 Warszawa 37, P.O.
Box 8, Poland. E-mail: iandi@plearn.edu.pl
EDITORIAL POLICY
Foundations of Science serves as a forum for the development and exchange
of ideas by working scientists and theorists of science on issues of methodological,
foundational, scientific, and philosophical importance. The primary aim
of the journal is to identify and highlight issues and problems within
these areas and more importantly, to suggest constructive solutions to
the problems. It aims to do this in a way that does full justice to the
scientific subtleties of the topics concerned yet which is accessible to
readers with backgrounds in a wide variety of sciences.
As the official publication of the Association for the Foundations of
Science, Language and Cognition, the journal has a global readership. The
editors of the journal are open to the view that various sciences have
approaches and methods which are peculiar to their own subject matter.
Nevertheless, they hold that important truths can be discovered about and
by the sciences and that these truths transcend cultural, historical, and
political contexts. The editors thus believe that the central foundational
questions of contemporary science can be posed and answered in an objective
manner that has permanent intellectual value across cultures and epochs
and they encourage the publication of papers that make such permanent contributions.
Paul Humphreys and Ryszard Wójcicki
INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS
Foundations of Science issues are typically published in the form of topic
issues and consist of the papers solicited by the guest editor(s). Still,
most of the topic issues contain a Varia section in which papers which
are not related to the main topic of the issue can be published. Authors
wishing to submit a paper for publication are advised to contact, by e-mail,
Sergiusz Pukas (iandi@plearn.edu.pl) in order to learn the current publications
schedule. Papers being submitted for publication in the Varia section should
be sent in duplicate to : Ryszard Wójcicki, Institute of Philosophy
and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 00-330, Nowy ´Swiat, Warszawa,
Poland.
Each contribution should include a short abstract, a list of key words
and a note indicating the author's affiliation. References should be stated
in a complete form at the end of the article in first of all alphabetical
and then chronological order.
The authors whose paper have been accepted for publication will be requested
to deliver an electronic version of their paper in any format which can
be exported to ascii. The paper will eventually be set in LaTex.
Authors receive 25 offprints of each paper free of charge. Additional
copies can be ordered when the proofs are returned to the copy editor.
SUBSCRIPTION ORDER INFORMATION
Beginning from 1997 Foundations of Science, is published by Kluwer.
Payments for subscription fees should be addressed to Bookkeeping Dept.,
Kluwer Academic Publishers, Spuiboulevard 50, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands
either in cheque to the above address or payment to the bank:
Bankers: ABN-AMRO, Dordrecht, Account Number: 51.34.52.206
Call for projects of topic issues
Scientists and theorist of science who are interested in guest editing
a topic issue of FOS are kindly requested to send their project to Ryszard
Wójcicki, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy
of Sciences, 00-330, Nowy ´Swiat, Warszawa, Poland.
The project should contain:
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A few page presentation of the main ideas and problems which are planned
to be discussed in the proposed issue. This part of the project should
be written in a form of a note which might be published in the journal
still before the project is accepted.
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The expected title and the name of the author(s) of the main paper of the
issue as well as the names of 3 - 5 persons who will comment on that paper.
The main paper should in a concise way survey both the most recent results
and most urgent problems in the area to be covered by the planned issue.
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The names of 4 - 5 persons (both working scientists and theorist of science)
who are willing to submit their contributions to the planned issue and
a few line description of the planned papers.
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Short biographical notes of both the author of the project and the chief
contributors. Please include in each note (1) titles of the main publications
(especially those relevant to the topic of the planned issue, (2) recent
academic affiliation(s), (3) the address for correspondence, e-mail and
www-addresses in particular.
The authors of the project are kindly requested to keep in mind that
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The audience FOS consists of both theorist of science and working scientists
interested in the foundational problems and thus it consist of people whose
background, experience and interest might be strongly diversified. The
papers published in the journal should not be addressed to a narrow group
of specialist. They should undertake problems of fairly general interest
and should be written in a language free of unnecessary technicalities.
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A topic issue should allow the reader both to grasp the essentials of the
problems and results presented in the issue and to localize them in the
right way in the current research work in the area.
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Besides research papers, the journal publishes (or plans to publish) survey
papers, interviews with outstanding personalities, outcomes of electronic
debates on selected methodological issue, discussions on book which have
recently appeared.
PUBLICATION PROGRAM, 1995/97:
Volume 1 (4 issues published in March and September of 1995 and 1996.)
Volume 1, number 1:
Guest Editor: Bas C. van Fraassen, Department of Philosophy, Princeton
University, 1879 Hall, Princeton NJ 08540, USA.
FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE - DISCUSSION: ...................................5-18
Bas van Fraassen........A Philosophical Approach to Foundations of Science
Patrick Suppes...........A Pluralistic View of Foundations of Science
Arne Collen.............The Foundation of Science
THE FOUNDATIONS OF STATISTICS:
David Freedman.........Some Issues in the Foundations of Statistics....19-39
Comments by James Berger, E. L. Lehmann, Paul Holland,
Clifford Clogg, Neil Henry.............................................41-67
David Freedman..........Rejoinder .....................................69-83
Diedrik Aerts and Sven Aerts......Applications of Quantum
Statistics in Psychological Studies of Decision Processes..............85-97
Maria Carla Galavotti...Operationism, Probability and Quantum
Mechanics ............................................................99-118
Paul Humphreys..........Computational Empiricism.....................119-130
VARIA:
Joseph Agassi...........Blame Not the Laws of Nature.................131-154
***
Biographical Notes...................................................155-157
On AFOS (some history of the initiative
and some recent developments)........................................159-160
Joseph Agassi.......Summary of AFOS Workshop, 1994...................161-166
Volume 1, number 2
AUTOMATED DISCOVERY
Herbert Simon............Machine Discovery
Wei-Min Shen.............The Process of Discovery
Jan Zytkow...............A Survey of Automated Discovery
Volume 1, number 3
TRUTH IN SCIENCE I;
Susan Haack - Science is neither Sacred Nor a Confidence Trick.......323-335
Ryszard Wojcicki - Theories, Theoretical Models, Truth. Part I:
Popperian and Non-Popperian Theories in Science......................337-406
Guliano Toraldo di Francia - Historical Truth........................407-416
Comments by Helena Eilstein, Jerzy Topolski..........................417-425
Guliano Toraldo di Francia - Answers to My Discussants...............427-428
VARIA:
Gerhard Schurz - Scientific Explanation: a Critical Survey...........429-471
***
Limits of Science - Cracow, 1996.....................................473-475
Some facts on AFOS...................................................477-478
Volume 1, number 4
TRUTH IN SCIENCE II
Ryszard Wojcicki - Theories, Theoretical Models, Truth. Part II:
Tarski's THeory of Truth and its Relevance for the Theory of Science.483-528
Pawel Zeidler and Danuta Sobczynska - The idea of Realism in the
new Experimentalism and the Problem of the Existence of
Theoretical Entities in Chemistry....................................529-547
Comments by Ian Hacking..............................................549-554
VARIA:
Glenn Shafer: The Situation of Causality.............................555-575
FOS 2:1
Mathematics Essential Tensions.
Guest editors: M. Heller
(Vatican Observatory, V-00120, Vatican Sity State),
J. Urbaniec (Institute of Computer Science, Jagiellonian University, Krakow).
Main paper:
Roman Duda "Mathematics: Essential Tensions"
IN PRINT: FOS 2:2.
THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR SCIENCE,
Guest Editor: Matthias Kaiser (National Committee for Research Ethics in Science and Technology (NENT), Norway)
Contents:
Matthias Kaiser: Introduction
John Lemons, Kristin Shrader--Frechette and Carl Cranor:
The Precautionary Principle: Scientific Uncertainty and Type I and Type II Errors
Laura Westra
Post-Normal Science, the Precautionary Principle and the Ethics of Integrity
Philippe H. Martin
``If You Don't Know How to Fix It, Please Stop Breaking It!" The Precautionary Principle and Climate Change
Sven Ove Hansson
The Limits of Precaution
Matthias Kaiser
Fish--Farming and the Precautionary. Principle.
POPPERIAN FORUM
Adam Grobler
Popper's Switch from Justification to Critical Preferences
Timothy Childers
Popper on Naturalism and the Foundations of Methodology
Noretta Koertge
Popper's Contributions to our Understanding of Social Science
Ryszard Wójcicki
Popperian vs. Suppesian Theories
Helena Eilstein
Two Remarks
SOME AFOS ACTIVITIES
FIRST SUMMER SCHOOL FOR THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
The School was organized under auspices of the Association for Foundations
of Science Language and Cognition in cooperation with the Institute of
Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Science. It was held
in Warsaw -- M\c adralin, 16 -- 31 of August, 1997.
The School was sponsored by the following two Institutions of the Soros
foundations network: The Higher Education Support Program of the Open Society
Institute and Stefan Batory Foundation.
Steering Committee of the School was:
Ryszard Wójcicki - Chair (Poland), Diderik Aerts (Belgium), Evandro
Agazzi (Switzerland), Nancy Cartwright (UK), Maria Luiza Dalla Chiara (Italy),
Irina Dobronravova (Ukraina), Gerald L. Eberlein (Germany), Leo Esakia
(Georgia), Victor Finn (Russia), Adolf Grunbaum (USA), Stephan Hartmann
(Germany), Peter Kolar (Czech Republik), Andrzej Lewenstam (Finland), Kestutis
Masiulis (Lithuania), Wolfgang Spohn (Germany), Ronald P. Thompson (Canada),
Tibor Vamos (Hungary), Paul Weingartner (Austria).
The program of the School consisted of the following
Courses:
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Risto Hilpinen (USA), Belief Systems, Knowledge and Reasoning (20 hrs)
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Ryszard Wójcicki (Poland), Main Topics in the Theory of Knowledge
(20 hrs)
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Noretta Koertge (USA), The Fundamentals of the Popperian Methodology,(6
hrs)
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Adam Grobler (Poland), The Fundamentals of the Popperian Methodology II
(6 hrs)
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Jan Zytkow (USA), Automated Discovery Systems Perspective on Knowledge
(6 hrs)
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Wolfgang Balzer (Germany), Structuralist Aspects of Social Sciences (6
hrs)
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Gerhard Schurz (Austria), Tarski and Carnap on Logical Truth (6 hrs)
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Gabriel Sandu (Finland), Logic of Presuppositions (6hrs)
Lectures
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Dagfin Føllesdal (Norway), Is there Anything `Given' in Perception
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Marian Prze\l\c ecki (Poland), Belief as an Object of Moral Valuation
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Wlodek Rabinowicz (Sweden), Dynamic Doxastic Logic and Iterated Beliefs
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Victor Finn (Russia), Argumentation Logics for Decision Making
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Wojciech Gasparski (Poland), Knowledge as a Commodity: Epistemological
Considerations on Science and Design
Popperian Forum --- panel discussion on the relevance of the Popperian
philosophy to the contemporary theory of knowledge. (4) Contributions of
the following students of the School: Fyodor Borodin, Danil Dorofeev, Alexey
Iline, Gleb Maslov, Tatiana Salnikova (Russia), Pawe\l Kawalec, Artur Koterski,
Tomasz Rzepi´nski, Wojciech Rege\'nczuk, S\'wierczy\' nski Maciej,
Anna Rykowska} (Poland), Peter Andras, George Clitan, Liliana Borsan, Corina
Cirluega Serban Leoca (Rumunia), Vihren Bouzov (Bulgaria), Olga Korpalo,
Katerina Priazenceva, Sergey Pukas (Ukraina), Alexander Kuisz (Belorus),
Sonja Smets (Belgium), Richardo Campa (Italy), Javier Arias Vilanova (Spain).
The Second Summer School
for Theory of Knowledge is planned to be held in the same place {M\c
adralin -- Warsaw} in the Second half of July 1998. For more information
contact the Organizers by e-mail: kschool@plearn.edu.pl
This Web page is provided on the Principia
Cybernetica Web by the "Center
Leo Apostel", a regional center of AFOS.