Marta Bielinska - Is the Best System approach really best for scientific practice?

Marta Bielinska

The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh invites you to join us for our Lunch Time Talk. Attend in person at 1117 Cathedral of Learning or visit our live stream on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.

Lunch Time Talk:   Marta Bielinska

Friday, February 27 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EST

Title: Is the Best System approach really best for scientific practice?

Abstract:

Do laws of nature govern physical reality? Proponents of the so-called Best System approach give a negative answer to this question. At the same time, they do not reject the existence of laws of nature altogether. Instead, on this view, laws are axioms of a deductive system whose true theorems describe the physical world with the best balance between simplicity and strength—hence the name “the Best System”.

How does the Best System relate to scientific practice? Many philosophers have argued that, in comparison with rival accounts of the laws of nature, it reflects scientific practice particularly well. Not only does it capture the fact that science aims to develop theories that are simple yet strong (for instance, in terms of explanatory power), but it also refrains from invoking metaphysical categories such as powers or dispositions, which are not recalled in contemporary scientific discourse.

However, what is missing from the literature on the Best System approach and scientific practice is the observation that scientific laws—at least in physics since the modern era—are largely formulated in the language of equations, such as Maxwell’s equations of electromagnetism or Einstein’s field equations.

In this talk, I argue that the Best System approach runs into a number of novel problems when applied to laws of physics expressed in the form of equations, including problems concerning approximations and idealisations, the role of units, and the lack of perfectly isolated systems. I further argue that, once such laws are taken into account, traditional objections to the Best System—such as the problem of immanent inter-system comparisons—take on a new form. 

I conclude with some considerations as to whether, in light of these arguments, the Best System should be rejected entirely, or whether some of its core postulates could be preserved and employed in a revised account of the laws of nature that better reflects scientific practice.

This talk will be available online:

Zoom:   https://pitt.zoom.us/j/96670521198

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg