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Logical Simplicity: A Challenge to Philosophy and to Social Inquiry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Horace S. Fries
Horace S. Fries*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
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Extract

In part one of this paper we shall elucidate an operational concept of logical simplicity as it seems to function in natural science. Although this is a tentative and exploratory formulation, its novelty, relative to the great European philosophical tradition, seems to require a preliminary warning about misunderstandings.

In Part Two we shall apply the formulation to social inquiry and make a positive suggestion for further development of the proposal.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , July 1950 , pp. 207 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1950

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