In the theory-dominated view of scientific experimentation, all relations of theory and experiment are taken on a par; namely, that experiments are performed solely to ascertain the conclusions of scientific theories. As a result, different aspects of experimentation and of the relation of theory to experiment remain undifferentiated. This in turn fosters a notion of theoryladenness of experime...

In this paper we present the main notions and applications of a unified Design theory. The theory is based on the distinction between two expandable spaces : a space of concepts C (concepts are sets defined under "ZF without choice axiom" in Set theory), and a space of knowledge K (K is defined as CAT, the set of categories in category theory). The process of Design is defined as the co-evoluti...

The paper begins by focusing the basic idea that Gestalt phenomena belong not only to the realm of perception but to the realm of inference. It is shown that Gestalt effects (i.e. the derivability of incompatible indifferent conclusions on the basis of the same background information) often occur both in counterfactual and in ampliative – i.e. inductive and abductive – reasoning. The main thesi...

Emergence has a long and controversial history. In this paper we briefly review the primary strands of the debate, paying attention to its use in the fields of philosophy of science and mind, social science and systems theory including the theory of complex systems. We argue that it is important to recognize why emergence in social systems is fundamentally different from other natural systems. ...

This transdisciplinary work proposes a cross-fertilization between cognitive science and theoretical physics, within a framework inspired by systems theory. Cognitive science concepts are applied in an epistemological analysis of physical theories, considered as representations of change. This analysis leads to the basic concept of distinction conservation, which appears necessary and sufficien...

Questions of set-theoretic size play an essential role in category theory, especially the distinction between sets and proper classes (or small sets and large sets). There are many different ways to formalize this, and which choice is made can have noticeable effects on what categorical constructions are permissible. In this expository paper we summarize and compare a number of such “set-theore...

The controversy between the theory-theory (TT) and simulation-theory (ST) has evolved so that it is often hard to tell exactly what the difference is between a simulation and a theory. I believe that this distinction was originally inspired, and can be freshly reconceived, as the distinction between verbal abstractions and concrete pictures. I argue that the multi-dimensional spaces described b...