Abstract:

Science can be considered as one of the results of human beings' efforts to provide satisfactory explanations for life and the universe. The most fundamental feature of science is that it consists of propositions that are verifiable, certain, and therefore universally valid. H. Vaihinger argues in his work called The Phılosophy of As If that all theoretical, practical, religious ways of thinking and acting of human beings, including science, are constructed through fictions. However, considering the qualities of science and fictions, it seems very difficult to bring these two concepts side by side. Although the idea that fictions play a role in scientific theorization is increasingly common, this function of fictions has traditionally been frequently denied. H. Vaihinger tries to show or prove that there are fictions on the basis of scientific propositions through the names that will support him in the history of thought and their theories in his work called The Phılosophy of As If. The aim of this study is to try to show, through scientific propositions or theorizations, that fictions play a special and central role in the effort of man to understand himself and the universe through H. Vaihinger's theory of fictions. In addition, it is aimed to evaluate the relationship between science and fictions and to bring H. Vaihinger, who is never known in Turkish literature, to the literature by positioning the view that fictions do not correspond to some facts even though they are scientific, in the context of H. Vaihinger's classical explanation.