Semantic and cognitive approaches in modern philosophy of science

The program of analysis of scientific knowledge, proposed by supporters of logical positivism, was based on presenting scientific theories in some standard form: as a set of sentences ordered by the relation of logical following. The insufficiency of this interpretation of scientific theory has been criticized by representatives of the historical, i.e. descriptive, direction in the philosophy of science. The model-theoretic approach to the analysis of scientific knowledge shifts the emphasis from the linguistic formulation of the theory to the family of set-theoretic structures that are models of the theory as regards Tarsky. As a result, the theory appears as a hierarchically organized set of models connected by structural relations of various types. This interpretation of the theory proves to be more realistic and, in particular, allows clarification of the conditions for evaluating empirical theories as true or false. The cognitive strategy for the analysis of scientific knowledge is an attempt to synthesize a normative and descriptive approach in the philosophy of science. It is about combining a model-theoretic approach in the philosophy of science, cognitive psychology and research in the field of artificial intelligence. Moreover, families of models describing the theory are considered as mental models, frames, and cognitive maps.

References
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[2] Nersessian N. Creating Scientific Concepts. Cambridge, MIT Press, 2008, 252 p.
[3] Thagard P. Computational Philosophy of Science. Cambridge, MIT Press, 1989, 238 p.