For a bottom-up approach to the philosophy of science

The aim of the chapter is to extend Cellucci’s bottom-up approach to mathematics to the philosophy of science at large, in the conviction that a bottom-up perspective will lead to a better understanding of the nature of scientific knowledge and its methodology. The first section summarizes the main traits of Cellucci’s position. The second section discusses the innovative ideas of Patrick Suppes, who embraces a bottom-up approach to philosophy of science having a strong affinity with Cellucci’s viewpoint. The third section outlines the constructivist approach to statistics recently developed by Christian Hennig in a bottom-up perspective. The fourth and final section focusses on the notion of context, which represents an essential ingredient of philosophy of science in a bottom-up outlook.