A Selective Survey of Theories of Scientific Method

Abstract

For some, the whole idea of a theory of scientific method is yester-year’s debate, the continuation of which can be summed up as yet more of the proverbial deceased equine castigation. We beg to differ. There are reasons for the negative view, however, some of which will be canvassed in this selective survey of the territory the debate about theories of method has traversed in the second half of the twentieth century. The territory is very wide-ranging. It is hard to find a perspective from which one can get an overall view. If one focuses on one part of the philosophical debate about method then others go out of focus or do not come into view at all. What will be attempted here is a number ..