Imagination in Scientific Reasoning: Theoretical Innovation and Scientific Explanation on the Example of Atomic Physics
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This article aims to show the great variety of ways in which new ideas enter science; ideas that must pass both the critical examination of the scientific community and the filter of empirical contrast. The community itself is aware of the role that conjectures, intuitions, and imagination play in the advancement of science. A fundamental role in the context of discovery is played by abduction, a form of reasoning that serves the purposes of theoretical innovation and scientific explanation, which I illustrate by focusing on the anomalous Zeeman effect, which is very appropriate to the case. But I also point out that in preductive reasoning, a genuinely deductive form of inter-theoretical reasoning, imagination, and luck should not be excluded when choosing the theoretical elements whose step-by-step combination leads to a novel theoretical result.
Source: Revista Guillermo de Ockham
Author: Andrés Rivadulla
Institution: Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4401635623