Abstract

ISLAS MONDRAGON, Damián. El progreso de la ciencia como resolución de problemas: una defensa de las posturas funcionalistas-internalistas. Valenciana [online]. 2015, vol.8, n.15, pp.129-155. ISSN 2007-2538.

Recently, Alexander Bird (2007) suggested that science progresses when it shows "accumulation of justified knowledge". To validate his position, Bird has contrasted his ideas against the concepts of scientific progress developed by Thomas S. Kuhn and Larry Laudan, respectively. Bird's aim is showing that "problem-solving" criteria defended by Kuhn and Laudan, is regressive and, therefore, anti-intuitive. In this text I analyze Bird's arguments and I show why his position is untenable. Afterwards, I evaluate Bird's position from his own epistemological foundations. At the end, I present some of the conclusions that can be inferred from this analysis.

Keywords : Scientific progress; Accumulation of knowledge; Problem solving; Pessimistic induction; Truth.