Explication Based Pluralism

Philosophy of Science Colloquium
The Institute Vienna Circle holds a Philosophy of Science Colloquium with talks by our present fellows.

Date: 23/01/2025

Time: 16h45

Venue: New Institute Building (NIG), Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien, HS 2G

Abstract:

Carnap emphasized that for a given explicandum, there is no such thing as the correct explicatum, but only one or more adequate explicata. This talk addresses two questions: In what ways can an explication problem have more than one solution? In what sense do multiple solutions to explication problems give rise to pluralism? Based on an analysis of the general structure of explications, I will first develop a systematic overview of the surprisingly many factors that can be responsible for multiple outcomes of an explication project. I will then suggest some conditions under which it is plausible to interpret multiple outcomes as giving rise to explication-based pluralism.