On two types of instrumental devices

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

Date: 14/11/2024

Time: 16h45

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

Abstract:

Instrumental devices are linguistic expressions that are formal or non-representational but nevertheless indispensable or at least instrumentally useful for certain theoretical purposes. We give a systematic study of such expressions and their roles in theorizing, thus offering a unified treatment of instrumental devices across different philosophical areas. Specifically, we present an explication of two general types of such devices, namely merely expressive devices and merely inferential devices and discuss their respective theoretical roles based on a number of philosophical examples. Joint work with Hannes Leitgeb (LMU Munich).