Cognition and Scientific Belief

认知与科学信仰

• 批准号: 8812199
• 负责人: Howard Margolis
• 金额: $ 0.9万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1988
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1988-07-01 至 1989-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=8812199&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Cognition; Scientific; Belief

What does cognitive science have to tell us about the role of evidence and argumentation in science? Over the past twenty or more years, cognitive science has been analyzing belief and persuasion. Dr. Margolis has taken what he has learned in cognitive science and applied it to an analysis of belief change -- i.e. "scientific revolutions" -- in science. He is specifically applying his understanding of cognitive science to the paradigm case of change in belief in science: the Scientific Revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Such analyses of these well-studied areas promise to have important and provocative implications for history and philosophy of science as well as for cognitive science. Under this grant, Dr. Margolis will examine three different aspects of the Scientific Revolution: 1) how persuasive was the status of the Copernican argument as it stood in 1633; 2) why astronomers were unlikely to accept the authority of non- astronomers on cosmology; and 3) how other kinds of evidence such as the discovery of America affected arguments for Copernicanism. These points go directly to the level of evidence needed for scientists to become persuaded of the accuracy of a new theory. According to Dr. Margolis, this level of evidence is much less than we have earlier supposed. If his research bears out his theory, our understanding of the processes of persuasion, using both qualitative and quantitative evidence, and theory change in science should be greatly improved.

关于证据和论证在科学中的作用，认知科学告诉了我们什么？在过去的二十多年里，认知科学一直在分析信念和说服。马戈利斯博士将他在认知科学中所学到的知识应用于对信念变化的分析。“科学革命”——在科学领域。他特别将他对认知科学的理解应用于科学信仰变化的范例案例：16和17世纪的科学革命。对这些被充分研究过的领域的分析有望对科学史和科学哲学以及认知科学产生重要而具有挑衅性的影响。在这笔资助下，马戈利斯博士将研究科学革命的三个不同方面：1)哥白尼的论点在1633年的说服力有多大；2)为什么天文学家不太可能接受非天文学家在宇宙学上的权威；3)其他种类的证据，如美洲的发现如何影响哥白尼学说的论点。这些观点直接涉及到科学家们需要的证据水平，以说服他们相信一个新理论的准确性。根据马戈利斯博士的说法，这一水平的证据比我们之前设想的要少得多。如果他的研究证实了他的理论，我们对说服过程的理解，使用定性和定量证据，以及科学理论的变化，应该会大大提高。