Formalized epistemology, logic, and grammar

Michel Bitbol

pp. 21-35

in: Mioara Mugur Schchter (ed), Quantum mechanics, mathematics, cognition and action, Berlin, Springer, 2002

Abstract

The task of a formal epistemology is defined. It appears that a formal epistemology must be a generalization of "logic" in the sense of Wittgenstein's Tractatus. The generalization is required because, whereas logic presupposes a strict relation between activity and language, this relation may be broken in some domains of experimental enquiry (e.g., in microscopic physics). However, a formal epistemology should also retain a major feature of Wittgenstein's "logic": It must not be a discourse about scientific knowledge, but rather a way of making manifest the structures usually implicit in knowledge-gaining activity. This strategy is applied to the formalism of quantum mechanics.

Cited authors

Wittgenstein Ludwig