A scientific evening with P. Feyerabend, C.S. Peirce, J.S. Bruner and T.S. Kuhn

Abstract

The author emphasises the constructivist nature of science and the specific role of abduction in creation of theories. He points out to eclectic nature of science and theory creation and compares scientists’ strategy to that of Foraminifera, as described by E. Heron-Allen. To build tests around their uni-cellular organisms they use any suitable grain of sand. The only mechanism for theory building is the abduction, eclectic by its nature. Basing on that, the author presents language not as a passive tool for reality description, but as an active instrument for science creation. He illustrates it with the specific interplay between notions “certainty” and “reliability”. Such an interplay unveils specific mechanisms underlying creation, development and improvement of theories (and science as a whole, as well). He points to the fact that certainty belongs to the sphere of abstraction, and reliability – to the sphere of practice. The relations between theory and practice are quite tight in physics. Unfortunately, in biology, and – all the more – in psychology and in motor control, the theory is by far more distal to reality than in physics. As a result, in motor control the share of theoretical reasoning in motor control is by far greater than observations and measurements. In motor control the intellectual courage is, then, by far more needed than the experimental diligence.