Abstract
This paper starts by presenting an overview of an approach to the theory of science based on units of scientific knowledge, named “advances”, connected by probabilistic causal relations. The notion of the “causal strength” of an advance is then introduced, and examples from nineteenth-century spectroscopy are explored with diagrams. The aim of this project is the implementation of the causal network in computer language.
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Notes
- 1.
“The resolution of these problems was greatly facilitated when Robert Bunsen, in the mid-1850s, introduced a lamp which provided a hot flame of low intrinsic luminosity; with the ‘Bunsen burner’ flame spectra could be observed against a minimum of disturbing background, and spectrum analysis was thereby facilitated in general. In particular, William Swan, using the Bunsen burner, was able to show convincingly in 1856 that the bright D lines could be attributed to sodium, the ubiquity of the D lines being due to general contamination with small amounts of that element. It was against this background that Bunsen and Kirchhoff undertook their collaborative researches of 1859–1860” (Siegel, 1976, pp. 568–9).
- 2.
The term “causal power” could be used, but it seems to be committed to a realist conception of causes, which I would like to avoid in the present exploratory stage of the project.
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Pessoa, O. (2011). The Causal Strength of Scientific Advances. In: Krause, D., Videira, A. (eds) Brazilian Studies in Philosophy and History of Science. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 290. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9422-3_16
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