Structuralist Account Research Articles

On the Question of Identification of a Scientific Theory (A Reply to "Van Fraassen's Concept of Empirical Theory" by Pérez Ransanz)

En este texto, van Fraassen responde a varias preguntas que se le han planteado sobre sus concepciones acerca de la ciencia. Intenta mostrar que se puede dar una explicación que implique que una teoría científica, aunque no se puede identificar con una clase de modelos, sí se puede identificar mediante una clase de modelos adecuadamente concebidos.

Aspects of the Intellectual Context of Pater's 'Imaginary Portraits'

There is no denying the importance of the 'imaginary portrait' as a technique, or preoccupation, in appreciating Pater's intention and achievement. The term covers somewhat disparate material drawn from Pater's career after 1878: the clearly semi-autobiographical 'The Child in the House', Marius the Epicurean, the evocations or short stories of Imaginary Portraits, the part historical reconstruction, part fiction of 'Hippolytus Veiled'. Critics have, perhaps a little too readily, found enough coherence and common purpose in these works to warrant a general classification. The resulting 'imaginary portraits' have been, broadly, subject to two kinds of attention. Scholars have seen them as in varying ways autobiographical or, alternatively, have explored themes, images, and dramatic patterns within them. Gerald Monsman's Freudian and structuralist account, identifying the portraits' inspiration in Pater's 'dreaded yet desired separation from parental dominance' and U. C. Knoepflmacher's study of Marius the Epicurean are recent examples of the two approaches.' Both the psychological and the thematic frames of reference are valuable means of rescuing Pater from the charge of intellectual and emotional confusion brought, for example, in Eliot's well-known essay.2 However, both methods have their dangers. The critic who explores the metamorphosis of the unconscious materials of literary art into conscious image and symbol may fall into unwarranted speculations and assertions, as Monsman seems to do (even if one wholly accepts Freudianism, there are insuperable difficulties in the 'diagnosis' of a long-dead subject). The problem with discovering themes and patterns is that they may become formulaic and restrictive, offering emblems rather than aeteologies. It might be useful to approach Imaginary Portraits, not by psychological speculation or the arrangement of mythic patterns but by investigating the traces in them of submerged controversial intention (I will omit 'Denys l'Auxerrois', where Pater's treatment of his source material is less interesting than in the other three portraits). The early notion of Pater, based largely on

Levi-Strauss in the Scottish Highlands, a structuralist account of Scott's The Lady of the Lake

Levi-Strauss in the Scottish Highlands, a structuralist account of Scott's The Lady of the Lake

A theory of behavior interaction in dyads: A structuralist account

A theory from the behavioral and social sciences is presented from the structuralist point of view. A more comprehensive theory-net is outlined, some basic terms and core assumptions are formulated, and an expansion of the theory towards two intended applications is given. Finally, some results of a first empirical test of the theory are reported. The aim of the paper is to show that the structuralist account of scientific theories is not confined to mathematical theories from the natural sciences, but can also be applied to relatively informal constructions of the behavioral and social sciences.

Piaget's logical formalism for formal operations: An interpretation in context

Two interpretations of the equations used by B. Inhelder and J. Piaget in The growth of logical thinking from childhood to adolescence (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1958) are discussed, with implication as the central example. The expression ( p ⊃ q) ( p implies q) is said to be equal to (p · q) V ( p · q) V ( p · q) (i.e., p and q, or not p and q, or neither p nor q). According to one, ( p ⊃ q) asserts the existence of each case mentioned. According to the other, ( p ⊃ q) only asserts that current knowledge allows the possibility of each of the cases. Neither interpretation makes sense of all the relevant passages. Both can be combined in a consistent interpretation when attention is paid to the functional context of the subject's use of logical operations in this book: the “operations” describe the knowledge states which the subject can differentiate and relate, on his way to solving Inhelder's tasks. The logical notation used to represent these states is not a representational format attributed to the subject and manipulated by his cognitive processes, but part of a structuralist account of the subject's reasoning capacities.

Is there any theoretical justification for a nonstatement view of theories?

There are three fundamental components in the methodology of theory reconstruction associated with what has become known as the structuralist account of empirical theories. The first of these is an insistence upon axiomatization by means of a set-theoretic predicate; the second may be identified with the formal apparatus for describing the logical structure and empirical content of theories, as developed by J. D. Sneed and his collaborators. The third position, forcefully argued by Wolfgang Stegm?ller is roughly the view that any attempt to explicate important concepts within the general philosophy of science under the 'traditional' construal of theories as classes of statements is bound to lead to an inadequate, oversimplified or unworkable picture of science.1 In contrast to the numerous drawbacks he discerns within the standard or 'received' account of theories, Stegm?ller maintains for his "nonstatement view" that it is simpler to handle, is richer and more flexible, leads to greater differentiations and constitutes a logic ally and empirically better representation of the claims made by scientists in their theorizing. Both the 'structure' and 'dynamics' of theories (the latter comprising in particular a systematic recon strual of Kuhn's and Lakatos's accounts of scientific change) are thus held to be more perspicuously presented by means of the nonstatement view. Stegm?ller has developed and elaborated the structuralist account of science in his book The Structure and Dynamics of Theories as well as in numerous articles and research papers. More recently, and partly in response to Feyerabend's review of The Structure and Dynamics of Theories, he has set out to clarify and contrast the statement/nonstatement views and present the most systematic sur vey and defence of the structuralist approach to date; the results are published in The Structuralist View of Theories.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Semiotics of Ontology

The third section of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight takes place in an inverted universe, a liminal world apart from the mundane, and serves to reveal the ontological structure of the medieval universe. This is achieved through the juxtaposition of three hunts, temptations, and exchanges that take place on each of three successive days. The hunts involve Sir Bercilak and a deer, a boar, and a fox; the temptations involve Sir Gawain and Bercilak's wife; and the exchanges take place between Gawain and Bercilak at the end of each day. When considered in light of Edmund Leach's structuralist account of taboo we see that the hunt between man and fox is anomalous in a way that parallel's Gawain's acceptance of the lady's girdle, also on the third day. These two transgressions mark the division of the moral universe into three realms, the animal or natural, the human or cultural, and the divine. The fact that such boundaries can only be marked by transgression explains why, at the end, Gawain's neck is spared by the Green Knight and why Gawain's fellows regard his scar as a badge of honor.

Sorcerers of Dobu: the Social Anthropology of the Dobu Islanders of the Western Pacific

DR. FORTUNE has given us a remarkably interesting and valuable account of the natives of the islands of Tewara, Dobu, and of the village of Basema, all in the D'Entrecasteaux group, which lies off the south-east end of New Guinea. Previously we had only the general observations of government officials in the Annual Reports of Papua, the useful little book “The Northern D'Entrecasteaux”, by Jenness and Ballantyne (Oxford, 1920), and a few notes by various travellers. The great merit of this book is that it describes the functioning of society and of social activities: it is thus a dynamic survey and not merely an account of social structure, as has usually been the case in previous ethnological studies—and, indeed, it is a good illustration of the modern method of field-work. Sorcerers of Dobu: the Social Anthropology of the Dobu Islanders of the Western Pacific. By Dr. R. F. Fortune. Pp. xxviii + 318 + 8 plates. (London: George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., 1932.) 15s. net.