Realism and Retention in Chemistry

Poster ke stažení

In this paper I tentatively explore the historical evidence for a bold claim: that theories of molecular structure have, since the 1860s, developed through a series of conservative extensions, despite some apparently radical theoretical and conceptual change during this time. A conservative extension of a theory is one where its inferential content before the extension (i.e. that which determines its explanatory and predictive power) is a proper subset of its inferential content afterwards. This will happen when a theory is extended or reinterpreted so that inferences can be made concerning phenomena about which no inferences were previously made.