Can Computer Modeling Help Us Understand the History of Science?
Pierre Boulos, School of Computer Science, University of Windsor, Canada Historians and Philosophers of Science have long debated what accounts for progress in science. Paul Thagard has put forward his Theory of Explanatory Coherence (TEC) and implemented it in a computer program called ECHO in an attempt to address progress in science and why one scientific theory supplants another. ECHO runs simulations of theory conflicts (Ptolemy versus Copernicus, Lavoisier versus Phlogistonists, Newton versus Descartes, et cetera) to test whether the principles in TEC will lead to the selection of the best theory. ECHO uses Neural Networks to provide evidence in favour of TEC. This paper explores how computational tools, like ECHO, can be used to help historians and philosophers of science. • Student Teachers’ Misconceptions of the Particulate Model of Matter Varda Bar, Science Teaching Center, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Chana Ma-Naim, Kibbutzim College of Education Barbara Zinn,
