Structures and Norms in Science

This book gives a state-of-the-art survey of current research in logic and philosophy of science, as viewed by invited speakers selected by the most prestigious international organization in the field. In particular, it gives a coherent picture of foundational research into the various sciences, both natural and social. In addition, it has special interest items such as symposia on interfaces between logic and methodology, semantics and semiotics, as well as updates on the current state of the field in Eastern Europe and the Far East.

Professor Dr J.F.A.K. van Benthem has received the 1996 Spinoza Award, an annual award to honour outstanding scientific merit and to stimulate innovative future research. from the jury report: `Van Benthem has positioned logic as an interdisciplinary science par excellence ... It is through his work that logic has acquired a bridge-function between alpha and gamma sciences on the one side and beta sciences on the other ... Van Benthem is a stimulating and innovative researcher, which explains his great attraction to young researchers. Under his inspirational guidance 38 promovendi from the Netherlands and abroad have finished their theses. In view of Van Benthem's innovative powers and the high level of his research, a number of initiatives are to be expected from him that will further strengthen the Dutch position of logic, more especially so in connection with the formal study of natural language.'

Inaugural address.- Trends in the foundation of physics.- Section 6 Methodology.- The empirical character of evidence.- Partiality, pursuit and practice.- Section 7 Probability, induction and decision theory.- Prior inferences for posterior judgements.- Game theory, rationality and evolution.- Section 8 History of logic, methodology and philosophy of science.- Anomalies and the revision of theory-elements: notes on the advance of Mercury's perihelion.- The prehistory of infinitary logic: 1885-1955.- Section 9 Ethics of science and technology.- Engineers, ethics and sustainable development.- Are there ethical reasons for being, or not being, a scientific realist.- Rights and autonomy of scientists: cases in the People's Republic of China.- On ethics and changing expertise in technology assessment.- Unpopular and precautionary science: towards a new ethics of science.- Testing models of natural systems: can it be done?.- Section 11 Philosophy of the physical sciences.- Macroscopic reality and the dynamical reduction program.- Section 12 Philosophy of biological sciences.- On conflicts between genetic and developmental viewpoints - and their attempted resolution in molecular biology.- The "paramount power of selection": from Darwin to Kauffman.- Environmental causes in ontogeny and an ethics of attention.- Section 13 Philosophy of cognitive sciences and AI.- Mental causation without the language of thought.- What is the problem of mental causation?.- Classical constituents in Smolensky's ICS architecture.- Section 14 Philosophy of linguistics.- Non-constituent coordination, wrapping, and multimodal categorial grammars.- Meaning sensitivity and grammatical structure.- Section 15 Philosophy of the social sciences.- Qualitative consistency masquerading asquantitative fit.- Why does evidence matter so little to economic theory.- Selection and attraction in cultural evolution.- Symposium 2 Semantics and semiotics.- Semantics and semiotics.- On meaning, logic and verbal language.- Semantics and semiotics.- Symposium 3 Logic and philosophy of science in the Far East.- Logic and philosophy of science in the Far East.- Logic in China.- Recent developments of logic, computer science, and philosophy of science in Japan.- Philosophy of science in Korea, 1950-1995.- Philosophy of science in Taiwan.- Table of contents Vol. I.