Scientific Progress and Metaphors

Abstract

Thus far we have explored how scientific developments transform intuition and visual imagery. We discussed the importance of being able to move between theories by means of universal physical constants whose limiting values match what we expect from perceptions. Two examples are the velocity of light becoming infinite, so that there is no relativity of time, and Planck’s constant becoming zero, thereby eliminating the wave/particle duality. We referred to this process as correspondence limit procedures. Behind all this is scientific realism, essential for any understanding of the scientific enterprise. The perhaps surprising ways in which scientists deal with data, and with each other, to achieve scientific progress have brought about an often highly public reappraisal of rationality.