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The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior
Published on: January 19, 2019
Understanding beyond grasping propositions: a discussion of chess and fish
Daniel A Wilkenfeld1, Jennifer K Hellmann
1University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. dawilk@gmail.com
Abstract:
In this paper, we argue that, contra Strevens (2013), understanding in the sciences is sometimes partially constituted by the possession of abilities; hence, it is not (in such cases) exhausted by the understander's bearing a particular psychological or epistemic relationship to some set of structured propositions. Specifically, the case will be made that one does not really understand why a modeled phenomenon occurred unless one has the ability to actually work through (meaning run and grasp at each step) a model simulation of the underlying dynamic.
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