Conclusions

Abstract

In our introduction, we discussed the role of constructivist theory for the history of scientific ideas in general and particularly for the history of the receptor concept. But did we follow a track which enabled us sufficiently to explain the historical construction of the receptor concept? Receptors, as the last chapter abundantly shows, play a major role in modern biomedicine, especially in the field of pharmacology. If we are living in a golden age of positivist modern science, then perhaps the indications of future successes can be identified in the history of the receptor concept. To quote a contemporary immunologist: ‘The side-chain theory … was the distant forerunner of clonal selection.’¹ Perhaps so, but the future does not determine the past, and in the following sections we will show that the theoretical framework presented at the beginning of our book is indeed useful for obtaining a deeper understanding of the history of receptors.