Abstract

JARAMILLO U, Juan Manuel. From the reference of terms and statements to the reference of theories: the novelty of sneed's view. discus.filos [online]. 2011, vol.12, n.18, pp.67-88. ISSN 0124-6127.

This paper intends to do a general presentation of the problem of theoretical terms and some of the problems caused by what Hempel called "requisite of linguistic specification" as well as the insufficiency of his main solutions in the framework of the received view or standard philosophy of science, giving special attention to Ramsey's solution and the way Sneed reworks it by paraphrasing it in modelistic terms and introducing substantive changes. As a result of these modifications, known as the "empirical assertion", that come with the theory (the Ramsey-Sneed assertion), I try to show the change from a philosophical worry for the referent of terms or statements, to an interest for the referent of theories, distinguishing what it would be their immediate referent, namely the intensional applications or data models from their mediate referent, the empirical systems that the intensional applications (data models) represent as a subclass of the potential models, both in isolated theories and in theoretical nets, what requires to propose a new kind of "empirical assertion".

Keywords : Empirical assertion; Ramsey-Sneed assertion; Structuralism; Theoretical net; Theoretical terms.

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