Theo Kuipers, born in Horst, the Netherlands, in 1947. Ph.D. from the University of Groningen. Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Groningen.
Fellow (1 September 1996 – 30 June 1997)
My project concerned the completion of an advanced textbook on the philosophy of science, entitled: Structures in Science. Heuristic Patterns Based on Cognitive Patterns.
The result is a manuscript of 600 pages, with twenty-one chapters, divided into six parts: 1. Description and explanation,; 2. Reduction and specification; 3. Confirmation and empirical progress; 4. Basic truth approximation; 5. Refined truth approximation; 6. Capita Selecta. About forty percent was written during my NIAS year, among which a couple of new or heavily revised chapters, notably, chapter four: Reduction and correlation of concepts; chapter five: Levels, styles, and mind-body research; chapter eight: Quantitative confirmation; chapter thirteen: Stratified modal truth approximation; chapter fifteen: Quantitative truth approximation. Moreover several new sections were written, e.g. on pseudoscience, acceptance, and epistemological positions, as well as a general introduction, introductions to the six parts, suggestions for further reading and exercises after each chapter.
The book is a neo-classical textbook in that it reflects the fact that traditional philosophy of science of analytical, logical-empiricist nature had to do a number of concessions, notably due to the work of Popper, Kuhn and Lakatos. Their insights have been accommodated and integrated.
Moreover, I have tried to show that philosophy of science is a meta-science with heuristic use-value. More specifically, one may conceive the book as the result of various cognitive studies of science, in search of cognitive structures, which provide heuristic patterns for several purposes.