12,080
edits
Changes
MyWikiBiz, Author Your Legacy — Sunday April 06, 2025
Jump to navigationJump to searchDirectory talk:Jon Awbrey/Papers/Inquiry Driven Systems : Part 1 (view source)
Revision as of 01:45, 19 September 2010
, 01:45, 19 September 2010→1.3.5.13. A Formal Suspicion: del merged text
Line 629:
Line 629:
</pre>
−=====1.3.5.13. A Formal Suspicion=====
−<pre>
−| Rational thought is interpretation according to a scheme that we cannot throw off.
−|
−| (Nietzsche, 'The Will to Power', S 522, 283).
−I hope that the reader has arrived by now at an independent suspicion that the
−process of formalization is a microcosm nearly as complex as the whole subject
−of inquiry itself. Indeed, the initial formulation of a problem is tantamount
−to a mode of "representational inquiry". In many ways this very first effort,
−that stirs from the torpor of ineffable unease to seek out any sort of unity
−in the manifold of fragmented impressions, is the most difficult, subtle,
−and crucial kind of inquiry. It begins in doubt about even so much as
−a fair way to represent the problematic situation, but its result can
−predestine whether subsequent inquiry has any hope of success. There
−is very little in this brand of formal engagement and participatory
−representation that resembles the simple and disinterested act of
−holding a mirror, flat and featureless, up to nature.
−If formalization really is a form of inquiry in itself, then
−its formulations have deductive consequences that can be tested.
−In other words, formal models have logical effects that reflect on
−their fitness to qualify as representations, and these effects can
−cause them to be rejected merely on the grounds of being a defective
−picture or a misleading conception of the source phenomenon. Therefore,
−it should be appreciated that software tailored to this task will probably
−need to spend more time in the alterations of backtracking than it will have
−occasion to trot out parades of ready-to-wear models.
−Impelled by the mass of assembled clues from restarts and refits to the
−gathering form of a coherent direction, the inkling may have gradually
−accumulated in the reader that something of the same description has
−been treated in the pragmatic theory of inquiry under the heading
−of "abductive reasoning". This is distinguished from inductive
−reasoning, that goes from the particular to the general, in
−that abductive reasoning must work from a mixed collection
−of generals and particulars toward a middle term, a formal
−intermediary that is more specific than the vague allusions
−gathered about its subject and more generic than the elusive
−instances fashioned to illustrate its prospective predicates.
−In a recursive context, the function of formalization is to relate a
−difficult problem to a simpler problem, breaking the original inquiry
−into two parts, the step of formalization and the rest of the inquiry,
−both of which branches it is hoped will be nearer to solid ground and
−easier to grasp than the original question.
to know everything about their material content
to know everything about their material content
down to the depths that matter can go.
down to the depths that matter can go.
−</pre>
</pre>
