CWL 3, Chapter II: “Heuristic Structure of Empirical Method”
Introductory
This entry focuses on a) the general form of explanatory classical science, and b) on scientific explanation vs. non-explanatory common sense. It is constituted largely by excerpts and paraphrases relevant to empirical science, and therefore, also to what constitutes the empirical science of macroeconomics. Though we are herein confined to excerpts and commentary, we recommend strongly that the serious self-educating student read CWL 3, Chapter II, in its entirety.
[CWL 3] Lonergan, Bernard J. F. (1957 ) Insight, A Study of Human Understanding, Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd., London; and (1997) Toronto: University of Toronto Press [CWL 3, 1957 edition/1997 edition]
First, here are eight introductory pointers:
.1) Empirical inquiry has been conceived as a process from description to explanation. We begin from things as related to our senses. We end with things as related to one another. Initial classifications are based upon sensible similarities. But as correlations, laws, theories, systems are developed, initial classifications undergo a revision. Sensible similarity has ceased to be significant, and definitions consist of technical terms that have been invented as a consequence of scientific advance…. The basic notions of physics are a mass that is distinct from weight, a temperature that differs from the intensity of the feeling of heat, and the electromagnetic vector fields.¶ Now the principal technique in effecting the trqnsition from description to explanation is measurement. We move away from colours as seen, sounds as heard, from heat and pressure as felt. In their place, we determine the numbers named measurements. In virtue of this substitution, we are able to turn from the relations of sensible terms, which are correlative to our senses, to the relations of numbers, which are correlative to one another. Such is the fundamental significance and function of measurement. (CWL 3, 164-5)
.2) Our direct understanding abstracts from the empirical residue. (CWL 3, 516/540)