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Philosophy of Sciences

2018 year, number 3

SCIENTIFIC THEORY AS A CREATIVE CONSTRUCT AND RAMSEY-ELIMINATION OF THEORETICAL TERMS

Valentin Nikonovich Karpovich
Institute of Philosophy and Law, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 8, Nikolaev st., 630090, Novosibirsk,Russia
Keywords: научная теория, креативность, концептуальный аппарат, логика, эксперимент, проверка, теоретический термин, элиминация, scientific theory, creativity, concepts, logic experiment, verification, theoretical term, elimination

Abstract

In logic, a scientific theory is traditionally represented as a deductive closure of primitive sentences of the theory. In this, a set of terms of the theory is divided into a theoretical part and an empirical one. In that regard, the question arises concerning the role of theoretical terms in the resulting deductive system, and it is usually solved by means of methods for eliminating the theoretical part in order to isolate empirical consequences of the theory. It is shown that the method for constructing a deductively equivalent system for the theoretical part proposed by F.P. Ramsey not only describes an empirical significance of theoretical terms for the original theory, but also explains the role of a theorist in the development of scientific knowledge.