The roots of this work lie in my earlier book, Scientific Progress,
which first appeared in 1981. One of its topics, the distinction -
tween scientific laws and theories, is there treated with reference to
the same distinction as drawn by N. R. Campbell in his Physics: The
Elements. Shortly after completing Scientific Progress, I read Rom
Harré’s The Principles of Scientific Thinking, in which the concept
of theory is even more clearly delineated than in Campbell, being
directly connected to the notion of a model – as it was in my book.
In subsequent considerations regarding science, Harré’s work thus -
came my main source of inspiration with regard to theories, while
Campbell’s remained my main source with respect to empirical laws.
Around the same time I also read William Whewell’s Philosophy of the
Inductive Sciences. In this work, Whewell depicts principles as
playing a central role in the formation of science, and conceives of
them in much the same way as Kant conceives of fundamental synthetic a
priori judgements. The idea that science should have principles as a
basic element immediately made sense to me, and from that time I have
thought of science in terms of laws, theories and principles.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781402038389
Publisert
2018
Utgave
2. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
Springer
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter