On Criteria for Formal Theory Building: Applying Logic and Automated Reasoning Tools to the Social Sciences

Abstract

This paper provides practical operationalizations of criteria for evaluating scientific theories, such as the consistency and falsifiability of theories and the soundness of inferences, that take into account definitions. The precise formulation of these criteria is tailored to the use of automated theorem provers and automated model generators---generic tools from the field of automated reasoning. The use of these criteria is illustrated by applying them to a first order logic representation of a classic organization theory, Thompson's Organizations in Action. Introduction Philosophy of science's classical conception of scientific theories is based on the axiomatization of theories in (first order) logic. In such an axiomatization, the theory's predictions can be derived as theorems by the inference rules of the logic. In practice, only very few theories from the empirical sciences have been formalized in first order logic. One of the reasons is that the calculations involve...