Skip to main content
Book cover

Structure and Approximation in Physical Theories

  • Book
  • © 1981

Overview

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (15 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

The present volume contains 14 contributions presented at a colloquium on "Structure and Approximation in Physical Theories" held at Osnabruck in June 1980. The articles are presented in the revised form written after the colloquium and hence also take account of the results of the discussion at the colloquium. It is a striking feature that the problem of approximation in physical theories has only recently found some attention in the philosophy of science, although the working physicist is con­ stantly confronted with those questions. No interesting theory of exact science exactly fits its experimental data; almost every relation between different theories is an approximate one. There­ fore an adequate reconstruction of physical theories must take into account and conceptualize the moment of approximation. The majority of the articles in this book is centered around this subject. There are at least two elaborate, 'structuralistic' approaches to the formalization of physical theories in which the aspect of approximation has been incorporated: the approach due to P. Suppes, J. Sneed, W. Stegmuller ("S-approach") and the approach of G. Lud­ wig and his co-workers ("L-approach"). The articles in this book correspondingly fall into three classes: presentation, elaboration and critique of the L-approach [Hartkamper/Schmidt, Ludwig, Neumann, Werner, Schmidt, Mayr, Kamiah, Majer, Grafe] or of the S-approach [Moulines, Balzer, Cooke], and articles referring to both approaches or concerned with related matters [Scheibe, Pfarr, Castrigiano]. Of course, this is only a rough classification and each article must be appraised in its own right.

Editors and Affiliations

  • University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany

    A. Hartkämper, H.-J. Schmidt

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Structure and Approximation in Physical Theories

  • Editors: A. Hartkämper, H.-J. Schmidt

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4109-3

  • Publisher: Springer New York, NY

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Plenum Press, New York 1981

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4684-4111-6Published: 26 March 2012

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-4684-4109-3Published: 11 November 2013

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VIII, 258

  • Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Theoretical, Mathematical and Computational Physics

Publish with us