Wenceslao J. Gonzalez 
Language and Scientific Research 

This book analyzes the role of language in scientific research and develops the semantics of science from different angles. The philosophical investigation of the volume is divided into four parts, which covers both basic science and applied science: I) The Problem of Reference and Potentialities of the Language in Science; II) Language and Change in Scientific Research: Evolution and Historicity; III) Scientific Language in the Context of Truth and Fiction; and IV) Language in Mathematics and in Empirical Sciences.

Language plays a key role in science: our access to the theoretical, practical or evaluative dimensions of scientific activity begins with the mastery of language, continues with a deepening in the use of language and reaches the level of contribution when it creates new terms or changes them in sense and reference. This reveals the compatibility between objectivity in semantic contents and historicity in the progress of science. This volume is a valuable enrichment to students, academics and other professionals interested in science in all its forms, who seek to deepen the role that language plays in its structure and dynamics.

Table of Content

1 The Relevance of Language for Scientific Research.- Part I The Problem of Reference and Potentialities of the Language in Science.- 2 Semantics of Science and Theory of Reference: An Analysis of the Role of Language in Basic Science and Applied Science.-3 On the Role of Language in Scientific Research: Language as Analytic, Expressive, and Explanatory tool.- Part II Language and Change in Scientific Research: Evolution and Historicity.- 4 Scientific Inquiry and the Evolution of Language.- 5 Language, History and the Making of Accurate Observations.- Part III Scientific Language in the Context of Truth and Fiction.- 6 The Evolution of Truth and Belief.- 7 Models, Fictions and Artifacts.- Part IV Language in Mathematics and in Empirical Sciences.- 8 On Mathematical Language: Characteristics, Semiosis and Indispensability.- 9 Characterization of Scientific Prediction From Language: An Analysis of Nicholas Rescher’s Proposal.

About the author

Wenceslao J. Gonzalez is Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the University of A Coruña, Spain. He is a Full Member of the 
Académie International de Philosophie des Sciences and a Fellow of the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, USA
.