VALIDATION
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3701 ▶ |
| Object type | Human sciences, Epistemology, ontology or semantics |
The (mostly consensual) process of recognizing the soundness of a theory, method, concept or model.
Validation is always referred to a prior system of values or concepts, accorded within an epistemic community through explicit or implicit consensus.
- “Truth” or “reality” can never be guaranteed in an absolute way by any theory, concept or model, even if constantly and carefully re-validated (see “ontologic skepticism”).
J. WARFIELD enounced a “Law of Validation”: “The validity of science depends upon substancial agreement within the scientific community of meaning at its highest grade, i.e. meaning attained through definition by relationship”. As observed by WARFIELD himself. this “is a necessary, but not in general sufficient condition for scientific validity”. One of the main difficulties is that “… interpretations are crucially dependent on language. The language itself is one of the implicit aspects of systems thinking and of science in general” (1988, p.337).
Other problems are:
- Consensus on new concepts or models can be long delayed by a dominant paradigm (Remember WEGENER about continental drift and MILANKOVICH about climatic cycles).
- Consensus is frequently more easy on abstract formalizations and models — logical or mathematical — than on practical applications.