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Rethinking Scientific Change and Theory Comparison:

Stabilities, Ruptures, Incommensurabilities?

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  • © 2008

Overview

Editors:
  1. Léna Soler

    1. LPHS-Archives Henri Poincaré, Nancy, France

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  2. Howard Sankey

    1. School of Philosophy, University of Melbourne, Australia

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  3. Paul Hoyningen-Huene

    1. Center for Philosophy and Ethics of Science, University of Hannover, Germany

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  • Represents the most recent thinking on the topic of incommensurability and scientific theory change
  • Each individual chapter appears with a critical commentary that typically represents an opposing viewpoint
  • Reflects and promotes interaction between French philosophy of science and philosophers of science from English-language philosophy of science

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science (BSPS, volume 255)

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Table of contents (25 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
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  2. Incommensurability, As Differences in Quasi-Intuitive Cognitive Capacities: A Task for Psychology?

    1. Introduction

      • Léna Soler
      Pages 1-17

    2. Incommensurability Naturalized

      • Alexander Bird
      Pages 21-39

    3. Commentary on Bird’s Paper

      • Paul Hoyningen-Huene
      Pages 41-46

  3. Incommensurability in a Wittgensteinian Perspective: How to Make Sense of Nonsense

    1. Nonsense and Paradigm Change

      • Aristides Baltas
      Pages 49-70

    2. Commentary on “Nonsense and Paradigm Change”, by Aristides Baltas

      • Eric Oberheim
      Pages 71-83

  4. Intra-Theoretical Change, as a Subjective Creative Elucidation of an Objective Formerly Present Content

    1. From One Version to the Other: Intra-Theoretical Change

      • Anouk Barberousse
      Pages 87-101

    2. Commentary on “From One Version to the Other: Intra-Theoretical Change”, by Anouk Barberousse

      • Igor Ly
      Pages 103-105

  5. Investigating the Continuities of Scientific Theorizing: A Task for the Bayesian?

    1. Modeling High-Temperature Superconductivity: Correspondence at Bay?

      • Stephan Hartmann
      Pages 109-129

    2. An Instrumental Bayesianism Meets the History of Science

      • Edward Jurkowitz
      Pages 131-141

  6. From the Cumulativity of Physical Predictions to the Cumulativity of Physics

    1. Is Science Cumulative? a Physicist Viewpoint

      • Bernard d’Espagnat
      Pages 145-151

    2. Commentary on “is Science Cumulative? a Physicist Viewpoint”, by Bernard d’Espagnat

      • Marcel Weber
      Pages 153-156

  7. From Denotational Continuity to Entity Realism

    1. The Optimistic Meta-Induction and Ontological Continuity: the Case of the Electron

      • Robert Nola
      Pages 159-202

    2. Some Optimism for the Pessimist

      • Steve Clarke
      Pages 203-206

  8. Is a Realist Interpretation of Quantum Physics Possible?

    1. Can We Consider Quantum Mechanics to Be a Description of Reality?

      • Hervé Zwirn
      Pages 209-217

    2. Commentary on “Can We Consider Quantum Mechanics to Be a Description of Reality?”, by Herve Zwirn

      • Soazig Le Bihan
      Pages 219-222

  9. Ontological Continuity: A Policy for Model Building or an Argument in Favour of Scientific Realism?

    1. Reasons for Choosing Among Readings of Equipollent Theories

      • Rom Harré
      Pages 225-238

    2. Harré Needs No Realism

      • Mauricio Suárez
      Pages 239-243

  10. A Change of Perspective: Dissolving the Incommensurability Problem in the Framework of a Theoretical Pluralism Incorporating an Instrumental Rationality

    1. Of Course Idealizations Are Incommensurable!

      • Paul Teller
      Pages 247-264

    2. Incommensurability from a Modelling Perspective

      • Ronald N. Giere
      Pages 265-269
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Keywords

About this book

LÉNA SOLER This volume is a collection of essays devoted to the analysis of scientific change and stability. It represents the most recent thinking on the topic of incommensurability and scientific theory change. It explores the balance and tension that exists between commensurability and continuity (or stabilities) on the one hand, and incommen- rability and discontinuity (or ruptures) on the other. And it discusses some central epistemological consequences regarding the nature of scientific progress, rationality and realism. With respect to these topics, it investigates a number of new avenues and revisits some familiar issues, with a focus on the history and philosophy of physics, in a way that is informed by developments in cognitive sciences as well as the claims of “New experimentalists”. The essays in this book are fully revised versions of papers which were ori- nally presented at the international colloquium, “Repenser l’évaluation comparative des théories scientifiques: stabilités, ruptures, incommensurabilités?” organized by Léna Soler and Paul Hoyningen-Huene at the University of Nancy, France, in June 2004. Each paper is followed by a critical comment, which either represents an opposing viewpoint or suggests some developments. The conference was a striking example of the sort of genuine dialogue that can take place between philosophers of science, historians of science and scientists who come from different traditions and endorse opposing commitments. I hope that this is evident in the book too and that it will constitute one of its attractions.

Editors and Affiliations

  • LPHS-Archives Henri Poincaré, Nancy, France

    Léna Soler

  • School of Philosophy, University of Melbourne, Australia

    Howard Sankey

  • Center for Philosophy and Ethics of Science, University of Hannover, Germany

    Paul Hoyningen-Huene

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