Inferential Definition of Scientific Understanding
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35305/cf2.vi19.191Keywords:
understanding, models, inferentialism, explanation, cognitionAbstract
In the last two decades, a perspective has emerged in epistemology that rescues the notion of understanding and tries to put it as the main focus of the discussion on scientific modeling, considering that it has a fundamental role in knowledge activity. From a brief review of some ideas of American pragmatism and the inferentialism of Mauricio Suárez, this paper aims to propose an inferential definition of scientific understanding. It is argued that understanding plays a central role in modeling as a term of cognitive success and that it can be introduced as an essential notion for the discussion about the explanatory function of models.
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