The "Center Leo Apostel", the research community 'Integrating world 
views" and the "Center for logic and philosophy of science" of the 
University of Ghent invites everyone to the 27th of CLEA's 
interdisciplinary seminars in the Foundations series. In these series 
scholars that are actively engaged in the research on the foundations of 
a particular discipline are invited. Their lectures will always be 
directed to an interdisciplinary audience, and the discussions aim at 
confronting the foundations of the different disciplines.



   A REFERENTIALLY REALIST EPISTEMOLOGY FOR THE EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCES:
   ******************************************************************

         conceptual interpretation, material realisation and
                    formal correspondence


                   by Prof. Dr. Hans Radder
                   ***********************
                  Free University Amsterdam



     Friday, February 13, 1998 at 2 p.m. in room 219 (2nd floor)

                       Universiteit Gent

      Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte, Blandijnberg 2, Gent



About the lecture:

The aim of this lecture is to propose a referentially realist account of 
the experimental sciences. These sciences are conceived as non 
monolithic, complex practices, in which one should at least distinguish 
between conceptual-theoretical, formal-mathematical and experimental 
activities. I will introduce a distinction between the material 
realisation and the conceptual-theoretical interpretation of experiments, 
and I will analyse the role of formal inter theory relations. On this 
basis, a criterion for the reference of 'theoretical' terms will be 
formulated. This criterion can also be applied to establish the 
(co)reference of terms, even if these terms belong to conceptually 
discontinuous theories. The resulting realist account is moderate: a 
plausible criterion of (co)reference can only tell that a term refers, 
but not what the referent, in itself, is like in a conceptual-theoretical 
sense. Yet, this kind of referential realism has a number of advantages 
as compared to alternative interpretations. To show this, the views of 
Putnam, Hacking and Fine will be briefly discussed.


About the speaker:

Dr Hans Radder studied theoretical physics and philosophy. He now 
researches and lectures in the philosophy of the natural sciences at the 
Free University of Amsterdam. He is the author of "The material 
realisation of science", and "In and about the world. Philosophical 
studies of science and technology".

The presentation with questions will last about an hour. Afterwards, an 
hour or more is reserved for an in-depth, group discussion of the topic.

More info at the CLEA office: phone 02-644 26 77 or on the Web: 
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/CLEA/