Inquiry as Inquiry: A Logic of Scientific Discovery

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Is Logic the Key to All Good Reasoning?

   • Jaakko Hintikka

   Pages 1-24

3. The Role of Logic in Argumentation

   • Jaakko Hintikka

   Pages 25-46

4. Interrogative Logic as a General Theory of Reasoning

   • Jaakko Hintikka

   Pages 47-90

5. What is Abduction? The Fundamental Problem of Contemporary Epistemology

   • Jaakko Hintikka

   Pages 91-113

6. True and False Logics of Scientific Discovery

   • Jaakko Hintikka

   Pages 115-126

7. A Spectrum of Logics of Questioning

   • Jaakko Hintikka

   Pages 127-142

8. What is the Logic of Experimental Inquiry?

   • Jaakko Hintikka

   Pages 143-160

9. The Concept of Induction in The Light of the Interrogative Approach to Inquiry

   • Jaakko Hintikka

   Pages 161-181

10. Semantics and Pragmatics for Why-Questions

    • Jaakko Hintikka, Ilpo Halonen

    Pages 183-204

11. The Varieties of Information and Scientific Explanation

    • Jaakko Hintikka

    Pages 205-225

12. On the Incommensurability of Theories

    • Jaakko Hintikka

    Pages 227-240

13. Theory-Ladenness of Observations as as Test Case of Kuhn’s Approach to Scientific Inquiry

    • Jaakko Hintikka

    Pages 241-250

14. Ramsey Sentences and the Meaning of Quantifiers

    • Jaakko Hintikka

    Pages 251-266

15. Towards a General Theory of Identifiability

    • Jaakko Hintikka

    Pages 267-289

Is a genuine logic of scientific discovery possible? In the essays collected here, Hintikka not only defends an affirmative answer; he also outlines such a logic. It is the logic of questions and answers. Thus inquiry in the sense of knowledge-seeking becomes inquiry in the sense of interrogation. Using this new logic, Hintikka establishes a result that will undoubtedly be considered the fundamental theorem of all epistemology, viz., the virtual identity of optimal strategies of pure discovery with optimal deductive strategies. Questions to Nature, of course, must include observations and experiments. Hintikka shows, in fact, how the logic of experimental inquiry can be understood from the interrogative vantage point. Other important topics examined include induction (in a forgotten sense that has nevertheless played a role in science), explanation, the incommensurability of theories, theory-ladenness of observations, and identifiability.

• epistemology
• knowledge
• logic
• reason
• science
• scientific discovery
• semantics

• Boston University, USA

  Jaakko Hintikka

Jaakko Hintikka is the author or co-author of thirty volumes and of some 300 scholarly articles in mathematical and philosophical logic, epistemology, language theory, philosophy of science, history of ideas and history of philosophy, including Aristotle, Descartes, Leibniz, Kant, Peirce, The Bloomsbury Group, Husserl and Wittgenstein. He has also been active in international scholarly organizations, most recently as the First Vice-President of FISP, Vice-President of IIP and Co-Chair of the American Organizing Committee of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy. He has been Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal Synthese and the Managing Editor of Synthese Library since 1965.

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