FOR 1614: What If? On the Meaning, Espitemology and Scientific Relevance of Counterfactual Claims and Thought Experiments

FOR 1614：如果呢？

• 批准号: 185153653
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Zentrum Philosophie und Wissenschaftstheorie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Units
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2011-12-31 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/185153653?language=en
• 关键词: 1614; What; Meaning; Espitemology; Scientific

The significance of counterfactual or in the widest sense conditional thinking for our cognitive and practical life is overwhelming. All our planning depends on it just as much as our pervasive causal picture. We think that the effect would not have occurred without the cause; and we assess what might result if we were to choose one of the available options. However, the nature of conditional thinking is still ill understood, despite a tremendous literature.The DFG research unit "What if?" tackled its topic from the outset in an original way. In two of its projects it deals with the philosophical and linguistic foundations of the topic, on the basis of recent developments in formal epistemology ignored so far. Two other projects attend to the most explicit implementation of conditional thinking, viz. thought experiments, in philosophy, in the humanities, and in biology, which is rarely explored in this respect. The hardly treated transition to fiction is blurred; it was addressed by a project from literary studies. The research unit was rounded up by a project in the history of sciences about the intellectual era that started talking of thought experiments.The collaboration of the group led to the conviction that a better understanding of condi-tional thinking requires a much more thorough-going study of its character as a tool and of its pragmatic and psycho-social foundations and impact. This is the guiding idea of the prolon-gation of the research unit, which is strengthened to seven projects (plus one associated). Thereby it enters even more unchartered waters, also methodologically.Three projects will deal with the philosophical foundations of conditional thinking. There is a modal theoretic project investigating a dynamic notion of possibility that may provide a better grounding of conditional theorizing. There is an epistemological-semantic project exploring the epistemic dynamics in conditional discourse. A further philosophical-psychological project addresses the topic of imagination, that mental faculty that is at the bottom of conditional thinking. In linguistics as well it has become more than apparent that one must study the pragmatics of conditional discourse. This study will be undertaken in two linguistic projects, in cooperation with the philosophical projects. All of this will be complemented by a Mercator fellowship from cognitive psychology. Finally, there are two projects strengthening the psycho-social aspects of the research unit. The history of science project, amended by another Mercator fellowship, will focus precisely on those aspects, as they have been treated in the further development of the intellectual traditions investigated so far. And the project, which nominally belongs to literary studies, but is actually one in social history, engages in larger dimensions by studying the political function of counterfactual historiography in post-sovjet Russian society.

反事实或在最广泛的意义上的意义对我们的认知和实践生活的有条件思维是压倒性的。我们所有的计划都取决于我们普遍的因果关系。我们认为没有原因就不会发生效果。并且我们评估如果我们选择一种可用选项之一，可能会导致什么。但是，尽管有巨大的文献，但仍不理解有条件思维的性质。DFG研究部门“如果？”从一开始就以原始方式解决了其主题。在其两个项目中，它涉及该主题的哲学和语言基础，基于迄今为止正式的认识论的最新发展。另外两个项目也参与有条件思维的最明确实施，即。思想实验，哲学，人文和生物学中的思想实验，在这方面很少探索。几乎没有被视为对小说的过渡是模糊的。它是由文学研究项目解决的。该研究部门是由科学史上一个关于知识时代开始谈论思想实验的项目的项目围捕的。该小组的合作导致人们坚信，对Condi-Thine Thinking的更好理解需要对其作为一种工具，其务实和精神上的社会基础和影响的工具进行更彻底的研究。这是研究部门的长期构想的指导思想，该研究部门加强了七个项目（另外一个相关的项目）。因此，它也从方法论上进入了更加未经特征的水域。三个项目将处理有条件思维的哲学基础。有一个模态理论项目调查了可能性的动态概念，可以为有条件理论提供更好的基础。有一个认识论的语义项目，探讨了条件话语中的认知动态。一个进一步的哲学心理项目解决了想象力的主题，即有条件思维的底部的心理教师。在语言学中，显然必须研究条件话语的语用学。这项研究将与哲学项目合作，在两个语言项目中进行。所有这些都将得到认知心理学的默卡托奖学金的补充。最后，有两个项目加强了研究部门的心理社会方面。由另一个默卡托奖学金修改的科学项目的历史将精确地关注这些方面，因为它们在迄今为止所研究的知识传统的进一步发展中得到了对待。该项目名义上属于文学研究，但实际上是社会历史上的一个项目，它通过研究后派对俄罗斯后社会中反事实史学的政治功能来参与更大的方面。