Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Logical Structure of Scientific Explanation and Prediction: Planetary Orbits in a Sun’s Gravitational Field

  • Published:
Studia Logica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We present a logically detailed case-study of explanation and prediction in Newtonian mechanics. The case in question is that of a planet’s elliptical orbit in the Sun’s gravitational field. Care is taken to distinguish the respective contributions of the mathematics that is being applied, and of the empirical hypotheses that receive a mathematical formulation. This enables one to appreciate how in this case the overall logical structure of scientific explanation and prediction is exactly in accordance with the hypotheticodeductive model.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Gilder, Joshua, and Anne-Lee Gilder, Heavenly Intrigue: Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and the Murder Behind One of History’s Greatest Scientific Discoveries, Doubleday, 2004.

  2. Newton, Isaac, The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, A New Translation by I. Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1999.

  3. Synge John L., Byron A. Griffith: Principles of Mechanics, 3rd edition. McGraw-Hill, New York (1959)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Tennant, Neil, Anti-Realism and Logic: Truth as Eternal, Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1987.

  5. Tennant, Neil, ‘Natural foundations for synthetic projective geometry’, Paper presented to the 8th Annual Midwest Philosophy of Mathematics Workshop at Notre Dame in October 2007, (2008).

  6. Tennant, Neil, ‘Natural logicism via the logic of orderly pairing’, in Sten Lindström, Erik Palmgren, Krister Segerberg, and Viggo Stoltenberg-Hansen, (eds.), Logicism, Intuitionism, Formalism: What has become of them?, Synthese Library, Springer Verlag, 2008, pp. 91–125.

  7. Tennant, Neil, ‘Natural Logicist Foundations for Functions of Reals and their Derivatives’, Unpublished typescript, (2008).

  8. Tennant, Neil, ‘A Pair of Paradoxical Counterfactuals Apparently Supported by Newton’s Second Law of Motion and Law of Gravitation; or, Why the Third Law of Motion is Needed, but is a Ladder that can be Kicked Away’, Unpublished typescript, (2008).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 230 North Oval Mall, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Neil Tennant

Authors
  1. Neil Tennant
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Neil Tennant.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tennant, N. The Logical Structure of Scientific Explanation and Prediction: Planetary Orbits in a Sun’s Gravitational Field. Stud Logica 95, 207–232 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11225-010-9257-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11225-010-9257-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation