Emma@SU-CSLI.ARPA (Emma Pease) (03/13/86)
[Excerpted from the CSLI Newsletter by Laws@SRI-AI.]
CSLI ACTIVITIES FOR NEXT THURSDAY, March 20, 1986
12 noon TINLunch
Ventura Hall Models, Metaphysics and the Vagaries of Empiricism
Conference Room by Marx W. Wartofsky
Discussion led by Ivan Blair (Blair@su-csli)
(Abstract on page 2)
No Colloquium this week
Models, Metaphysics and the Vagaries of Empiricism
by Marx W. Wartofsky
Discussion led by Ivan Blair (Blair@su-csli)
In the introduction to the collection of his articles from which
the paper for this TINlunch is taken, Wartofsky says that his concern
is with `the notion of representation, and in particular, the role and
nature of the model, in the natural sciences, in theories of
perception and cognition, and in art.' In `Meaning, Metaphysics and
the Vagaries of Empiricism,' he explores the existential commitment
that should accompany the creation and use of a model, from the
perspective of a critical empiricism. Wartofsky considers six grades
of existential commitment, or ways of construing the ontological
claims of a model, ranging from the ad hoc analogy to a true
description of reality. Critical of the attempt by empiricists to
reduce theoretical statements to assertions about sense perception,
Wartofsky seeks to ground existence claims in what he calls the common
understanding, which is associated with everyday language
representations of experience.
I intend the issues addressed in this article to provide the
framework for a general discussion of the relation between ontology
and epistemology.