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Static Procedural Methods theorem (Barseghyan-2015) (view source)
Revision as of 22:15, 10 November 2023
, 22:15, 10 November 2023no edit summary
{{Theory
|Topic=Static vs. Dynamic Methods
|Theory Type=Descriptive
|Subject=
|Predicate=
|Title=Static Procedural Methods theorem
|Theory TypeAlternate Titles=|Title Formula=|Text Formula=Descriptive
|Formulation Text=All procedural methods are necessarily static.
|Formulation FileObject=Static-procedural-methods-theorem-box-only.jpg|Topic=Static vs. Dynamic Methods
|Authors List=Hakob Barseghyan,
|Formulated Year=2015
|Formulation File=Static-procedural-methods-theorem-box-only.jpg|Description=A '''[[Procedural Method|procedural method''' ]] is a method which presupposes a doesn't presuppose any contingent propositions; it can only presuppose necessary truth about the worldtruths such as those of mathematics or logic. Given the nature of necessary truths, it is impossible for one such truth to contradict another necessary truth since it must be true in all possible worlds. Therefore, it follows from the '''Method Rejection''' theorem that, since there can be no elements at odds with a necessary truth, any procedural method is, in principle, static.
|Resource=Barseghyan (2015)
|Prehistory=Philosophers of science up until [[Karl Popper]] and [[Imre Lakatos]] typically believed that there was at least one element of the scientific mosaic immune to change. For most, this static element was believed to be a transhistorical scientific method. Philosophers have not always agreed what this static [[Method#Prehistory|method]] should be, but almost all until the second half of the twentieth century believed that the scientific method should be an unchanging element in a scientific mosaic.[[CiteRef::Hoyningen-Huene (2008)]]
[[Aristotle]] and his successors assumed a method by which axiomatic proof could guarantee absolute certainty about the world. [[Rudolf Carnap]] and the logical positivists attempted to axiomatize scientific theories, and therefore apply a universal method of logical deduction in their form of inductive verificationism. Contra the positivist approach, but still assuming a universal and static characteristic of method, Popper introduced a falsificationist method of science.[[CiteRef::Andersen and Hepburn (2015)]] This method rejected ever achieving absolute certainty in the truth of a theory, but Popper and contemporaries nonetheless assumed that this falsificationist method ought to have, and in fact had, applied to all scientific communities across time and space. The particular differences between each method are elaborated on the page on [[Method]], but it is due to the assumption that their own explicated procedure of theory acceptance applies to all scientific communities that these philosophers can be characterized as subscribing to a Static Methods theorem.
More recently, the debate between Laudan and Worrall[[CiteRef::Laudan (1984a)]][[CiteRef::Worrall (1988)]][[CiteRef::Laudan (1989a)]][[CiteRef::Worrall (1989)]] elucidated the distinction between two questions about static methods. First, an empirical question: have there been any methods which have not changed through history? And second, a theoretical question: Are there any methods which are, in principle, immune to change? Both Worrall and Laudan agreed that there exist [[Substantive Method|substantive methods]] shaped by contingent proposition and therefore not static. However, Laudan held that no methods have ever been [[Procedural Method|procedural]] — shaped by only necessary propositions and therefore immune to change — whereas Worrall contents that certain methods, such as the hypothetico-deductive method, are in fact procedural and historically have formed the base of scientific reasoning.
|History=
|Page Status=Needs Editing
|Editor Notes=
}}
{{Acceptance Record
|Acceptance Indicators=The theorem became ''de facto'' accepted by the community at that time together with the whole [[The Theory of Scientific Change|theory of scientific change]].
|Still Accepted=Yes
|Accepted Until Era=
|Accepted Until Year=
|Accepted Until Month=
|Accepted Until Day=
|Accepted Until Approximate=No
|Rejection Indicators=
}}
