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On legal interpretationIn Aleksander Peczenik & Jyrki Uusitalo (eds.), Reasoning on Legal Reasoning, Society of Finnish Lawyers. pp. 6--175. 1979.
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60How evolutionary theory faces the realitySynthese 89 (1). 1991.The paper sketches an account of explanatory practice in which explanations are viewed as answers to explanation-requiring questions. To avoid difficulties in previous proposals, the paper uses the structuralist account of theory structure, arguing that theories are complex and evolving entities formed around a conceptual core and a set of intended applications. The argument is that this view does better justice to theories which involve a number of different kinds of theory-elements to give nar…Read more
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51Creativity and DiscoveryThe Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 4 239-247. 1999.In what follows, I want to discuss two particular—though broad—topics that have been raised by recent advances in cognitive science and science studies. First, the role of creativity in scientists’ self-understanding has changed dramatically through centuries and, with help from our friends in cognitive science, it is now possible to go beyond the so-called scientific imagination. I shall also suggest that creativity requires persistence over a long period. In our times of immediate gratificatio…Read more
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19Knowing and MakingGrazer Philosophische Studien 49 (1): 121-134. 1994.Jaakko Hintikka's Kantianism in philosophy of logic and mathematics is known to go further than Kant's own, for he argues that mathematical reasoning involves the "language-games" of seeking and finding. Therefore, logic mirrors the structure of this activity. But Hintikka also pushes the Copemican Revolution further to epistemology and philosophy of science. He agrees that "reason has insight only into what which it produces after a plan of ist own", but gives the idea a new logical turn. Kant …Read more
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21Explanation: in search of the rationaleIn Philip Kitcher & Wesley Salmon (eds.), Scientific Explanation, Univ of Minnesota Pr. pp. 13--253. 1989.
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54On the Logic of Why-QuestionsPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1984. 1984.The paper explores two ways in which the logic of questions might aid in the understanding of explanations. First, the "logic" of question-answer sequences imposes constraints on what answers are acceptable for an inquirer. Secondly, there are field- specific type-requirements built into questions. There is always more to a question than meets the potential answerer's ear. It is argued that, since there are nonepistemic presuppositions of why-questions, there are no interesting necessary and suf…Read more
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32How to Put Questions to NatureRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 27 267-284. 1990.In this paper I propose to examine, and in part revive, a time-honoured perspective to inquiry in general and scientific explanation in particular. The perspective is to view inquiry as a search for answers to questions. If there is anything that deserves to be called a working scientist's view of his or her daily work, it surely is that he or she phrases questions and attempts to find satisfactory answers to them
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42Darwin's long and short argumentsPhilosophy of Science 57 (4): 677-689. 1990.Doren Recker has criticized the prevailing accounts of Darwin's argument for the theory of natural selection in the Origin of Species. In this note I argue that Recker fails to distinguish between a deductive short argument for the principle of natural selection, and a non-deductive, long argument which aims at establishing that the principle has explanatory power in the various domains of application. I shall try to show that the semantic view of theories, especially in its structuralist form, …Read more
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1The Interrogative Model of Inquiry in Evolutionary StudiesActa Philosophica Fennica 49 473-487. 1990.
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University of HelsinkiDepartment of Philosophy (Theoretical Philosophy, Practical Philosophy, Philosophy in Swedish)Retired faculty