Abstract
What follows is a case study pertinent to Jaako Hintikka’s “Knowledge of Functions in the Growth of Mathematical Knowledge,” in which he explores what light his work in the semantics of questions and in the interrogative approach to inquiry might shed on the development of the concept of function. The functions he considers serve as answers to questions about the relation among experimentally measured physical quantities. At issue in general is what constitutes a conclusive answer to a question. That is, what does the answer assume about the questioner’s knowledge? What must the questioner know to recognize the answer? In particular, if the answer takes the form of a function, what must the experimenter know to recognize it?
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Mahoney, M.S. (2000). Huygens and the Pendulum: From Device to Mathematical Relation. In: Grosholz, E., Breger, H. (eds) The Growth of Mathematical Knowledge. Synthese Library, vol 289. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9558-2_2
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