A Logical Empiricist Theory of Scientific Change?

Abstract

There is in the philosophy of science a view of the nature of science which is often referred to as the orthodox view. In my opinion Dudley Shapere has succinctly characterized the main tenets of this view in his article ’Meaning and Scientific Change’.¹ According to this view, let me refer to it as the orthodox Logical Empiricist (LE) view, the problem of developing a theory of scientific change was not considered to be a legitimate problem for the philosophy of science. A primary concern of the Logical Empiricist was to analyze the logical structure which is shared by all scientific theories. From the point of view of the development of science the logical structure of scientific theories is a constant. What varies from one theory to another is their empirical content not their logical form.