Abstract
In the preceding chapters we presented a detailed synchronic account of empirical theories. The most complex entity detected in our analysis so far is what we have called “a theory-net”. It is the formal counterpart of the intuitive idea of “an empirical theory” many people appear to have in mind. However, this correspondence between the intuitive and the formal notions only holds when a purely synchronic point of view is adopted. When empirical theories are viewed as a part of the history of human culture, as cultural items in process, the concept of a theory-net is clearly insufficient to represent them. The reason simply is that the concept of a theory-net does not contain any provision for representing changes of conceptual structures within historical time. On the other hand, most people would like to have a clear concept of an empirical theory as a kind of entity that has “a history” like any other cultural product — an entity that emerges, develops, and ultimately dies. Therefore, we need a still more complex notion of a theory including those diachronic aspects that some people feel are essential to a complete notion of an empirical theory. In this chapter, we shall introduce a notion of this kind under the label of “theory-evolution”.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Arveson, M. H., ‘The Greatest Synthetic Philosopher since Newton’, The Chemical Bulletin 23, No. 5(1936).
Boltzmann, L., ‘Über eine von Herrn Bartoli entdeckte Beziehung der Wärmestrahlung zum zweiten Hauptsatz’ (1884), in: L. Boltzmann, Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen, III, Chelsea Publication Company, New York, 1968.
Boltzmann, L., ‘Ableitung des Stefanschen Gesetzes’ (1884), in: L. Boltzmann, Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen, III, Chelsea Publication Company, New York.
Boltzmann, L., ‘Zur Energetik’, in: L. Boltzmann, Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen, III, Chelsea Publication Company, New York, 1968.
Brønsted, J. N., ‘On the Definition of the Gibbs Potential’, Mathematisk-fysiske Meddelelser XII/6 (1933).
Clausius, R., ‘Über die Bestimmung der Disgregation eines Körpers und die wahre Wärmecapacität’, Poggendorffs Annalen der Physik und Chemie CXXVII (1866).
Clausius, R., ‘Mechanische Wärmetheorie’, Poggendorffs Annalen CXXV (1865).
Defant, A., ‘Flutwellen und Gezeiten des Wassers’, in: Handbuch der Physik (ed. by S. Flügge), vol. 78, Geophysik II, 1957.
Diederich, W., ‘Zu Sneeds Theorie der mathematischen Physik: Theorienhierarchien und ihre Entwicklung’, in G. Patzig et al. (eds.), Logik, Ethik und Theorie in den Geisteswissenschaften, Felix Meiner Verlag, Hamburg, 1977.
Diederich, W., ‘Struktur und Dynamik wissenschaftlicher Theorien’, Philosophische Rundschau 21, 1981.
Duhem, P., ‘Comptes rendus et analysis’, Bulletin des sciences mathématiques XXXI (1907).
Feyerabend, P., ‘Against Method’, in: Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science (ed. by N. Radner and S. Winokur), vol. IV, 1970.
Garber, E. A. W., Maxwell, Clausius and Gibbs: Aspects of the Development of Kinetic Theory and Thermodynamics, Ann Arbor, Michigan University Microfilms International, 1966.
Gibbs, J. W., ‘A Method of Geometrical Representation of the Thermodynamic Properties of Substances by means of Surfaces’ (1873), in: The Scientific Papers of J. Willard Gibbs, I (Thermodynamics). New York, 1961.
Gibbs, J. W., ‘Graphical Methods in the Thermodynamics of Fluids’ (1873), in: The Scientific Papers of J. Willard Gibbs, I (Thermodynamics). New York.
Gibbs, J. W., ‘On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances’ (1876/78), in: The Scientific Papers of J. Willard Gibbs, I (Thermodynamics). New York.
Gibbs, J. W., ‘Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius’, in: op. cit.
Hiebert, E. N., ‘Chemical Thermodynamics and the Third Law: 1884–1914’, in: Human Implications of Scientific Advances (ed. by E. G. Forbes), Edinburgh University Press, 1978.
Hiebert, E. N., ‘Nernst’, Dictionary of Scientific Biography, XIV, 1978.
Hiebert, E. N., ‘Ostwald’, Dictionary of Scientific Biography, XIV, 1978.
Home, R. W., ‘The Third Law in Newton’s Mechanics’, The British Journal for the History of Science 7 (1968–69).
Hornix, W. J., ‘The Thermostatics of J. Willard Gibbs and 19th Century Physical Chemistry’, in: Human Implications of Scientific Advances, (ed. by E. G. Forbes), Edinburgh University Press, 1978.
Hund, F., Geschichte der physikalischen Begriffe, B. I., Mannheim, 1972.
Klein, M. J., ‘The Early Papers of J. Willard Gibbs: A Transformation of Thermodynamics’, in: Human Implications of Scientific Advances, (ed. by E. G. Forbes), Edinburgh University Press, 1978.
Kuhn, T. S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1962 (2nd ed. 1970).
Kuhn, T. S., ‘Theory-Change as Structure-Change: Comments on the Sneed Formalism’, Erkenntnis 10, 1976.
Lakatos, I., ‘Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes’, in: Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (ed. by I. Lakatos and A. Musgrave), Cambridge University Press, 1970.
Landsberg, P. T., Thermodynamics, Interscience, New York, 1961.
Maxwell, J. C, ‘On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances’, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, II (1876), in: The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (ed. by W. D. Niven), vol. II, Dover, New York, 1965.
-Moulines, C. U., ‘Theory-Nets and the Evolution of Theories: The Example of Newtonian Mechanics’, Synthese 4,1979.
Moulines, C. U., Exploracíones metacientíficas, Alianza, Madrid, 1982.
Newton, I., Unpublished Scientific Papers (ed. by A. R. Hall), Paperback ed., Cambridge University Press, 1978.
Newton, I., Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (ed. by A. Koyré and I. B. Cohen), M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1972.
Newton, I., Opticks, in: Newton, I., Opera quae extant omnia (ed. by S. Horley), Stuttgart, 1964.
Niiniluoto, I., ‘The Growth of Theories: Comments of the Structuralist Approach’, in: Theory Change, Ancient Axiomatics and Galileo’s Methodology: Proceedings of the 1978 Pisa Congress on History and Philosophy of Science (ed. by J. Hintikka, D. Gruender and E. Agazzi), Reidel, Dordrecht, 1981.
Pannekoek, A., A History of Astronomy, Barnes and Noble, New York, 1969.
Partington, J. R., A History of Chemistry, 4, London, 1972.
Pirie, G., ‘Letters to Gibbs’ (January and April 1878), in: Scientific Correspondence of J. Willard Gibbs (ed. by R. J. Seeger), Oxford, 1974.
Popper, K. R., ‘Normal Science and Its Dangers’, in: Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, (ed. by I. Lakatos and A. Musgrave), Cambridge University Press, 1970.
Reichen, Ch.-A., A History of Astronomy, Leisure Arts Publication, London, 1969.
Rowlinson, J. S., ‘The Properties of Real Gases’, in: Handbuch der Physik (ed. by S. Flügge), vol. XII, Berlin, 1958.
Sadovsky, V. N., ‘The Logic and Theory of Change in Scientific Theories’, Theory Change, Ancient Axiomatics and Galileo’s Methodology: Proceedings of the 1978 Pisa Congress on History and Philosophy of Science, J. Hintikka, D. Gründer and E. Agazzi (eds.), Reidel, Dordrecht, 1981.
Seeger, R. J., J. Willard Gibbs — American Mathematical Physicist par excellence, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1974.
Shapere, D., Review of T. S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Philosophical Review 73 (1964).
Shapley, H. and Howarth, H., A Source Book in Astronomy, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1929.
Sneed, J. D., The Logical Structure of Mathematical Physics, revised edition, Reidel, Dordrecht, 1979.
Stegmüller, W., Theorienstrukturen und Theoriendynamik, Springer, Berlin, 1973. English translation by W. Wohlhüter, The Structure and Dynamics of Theories, Springer, New York, 1976.
Stegmüller, W., ‘Structures and Dynamics of Theories: Some Reflections on J. D. Sneed and T. S. Kuhn’, Erkenntnis 9 (1975), 75–100.
Also in Stegmüller, Collected Papers, II, Reidel, Dordrecht, 1977.
Stegmüller, W., ‘Accidental (“Non-Substantial”) Theory Change and Theory Dislodgment’, Erkenntnis 10 (1976).
Stegmüller, W., ‘A Combined Approach to the Dynamics of Theories’, Theory and Decision 9 (1978).
Stegmüller, W., Theorie und Erfahrung: Dritter Teilband: Die Entwicklung des neuen Strukturalismus seit 1973, Springer, New York, 1986.
Stevens, F. W., ‘Josiah Willard Gibbs and the Extension of the Principles of Thermodynamics’, Science (1927).
Szabó, I., ‘Die Geschichte der Theorie der schwingenden Saite’, Humanismus und Technik 15 (1971).
Toulmin, St., Foresight and Understanding, Harper, New York, 1961.
Toulmin, St., Human Understanding, Princeton University Press, 1972.
Truesdell, C. A., Essays in the History of Mechanics, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, 1968.
Truesdell, C. A., ‘History of Classical Mechanics. Part I, to 1800’, Die Naturwissenschaften (1976).
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1987 D. Reidel Publishing Company
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Balzer, W., Moulines, C.U., Sneed, J.D. (1987). The Diachronic Structure of Theories. In: An Architectonic for Science. Synthese Library, vol 186. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3765-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3765-9_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-8176-4
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-3765-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive