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For the philosopher interested in the idea of objective knowledge of the real world, the nature of science is of special importance, for science, and more particularly physics, is today considered to be paradigmatic in its affording of such knowledge. And no understand ing of science is complete until it includes an appreciation of the nature of the relation between successive scientific theories-that is, until it includes a conception of scientific progress. Now it might be suggested by some that there are a variety of ways in which science progresses, or that there are a number of different notions of scientific progress, not all of which concern the relation between successive scientific theories. For example, it may be thought that science progresses through the application of scientific method to areas where it has not previously been applied, or, through the development of individual theories. However, it is here suggested that the application of the methods of science to new areas does not concern forward progress so much as lateral expansion, and that the provision of a conception of how individual theories develop would lack the generality expected of an account concerning the progress of science itself.
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SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
SYNTHESE LIBRARY
STUDIES IN EPISTEMOLOGY LOGIC, METHODOLOGY, AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Editor-in-Chief: VINCENT F. HENDRICKS, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark JOHN SYMONS, University of Texas at El Paso, U.S.A.
Honorary Editor: JAAKKO HINTIKKA, Boston University, U.S.A.
Editors: DIRK VAN DALEN, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands THEO A. F. KUIPERS, University of Groningen, The Netherlands TEDDY SEIDENFELD, Carnegie Mellon University, U.S.A. PATRICK SUPPES, Stanford University, California, U.S.A. ´ SKI, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland JAN WOLEN
VOLUME 153
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS A Study Concerning the Nature of the Relation Between Successive Scientific Theories
FOURTH EDITION by
CRAIG DILWORTH Department of Philosophy, Uppsala University
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4020-6353-4 (HB) ISBN 978-1-4020-6354-1 (e-book)
Published by Springer, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands. www.springer.com
Printed on acid-free paper
First edition 1981 Second edition 1986 Third edition 1994
All Rights Reserved © 2007 Springer No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
“Free of unnecessary ballast, and written with didactical aptitude, this book gives a complete overview of how the different views of scientific progress have developed since the time of the Vienna Circle. It is a suitable introduction to a complex period in contemporary theory of knowledge. In later chapters the author present his own standpoint, so that the work can also be used as a source of new impulses in this direction. … “The author convincingly works out how from his point of view it is possible to explain the conflict between two theories as an incompatibility of perspectives, and at the same time avoid sliding into relativism by giving criteria for scientific progress. … “I hope that my all too brief remarks will encourage the reader – and especially the interested non-specialist – to read this book.” Dialectica “This book provides an extremely clear description and critique of the best known contemporary versions of philosophy of s