RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Theory Success: Some Evaluative Clues
A1 Caamaño Alegre, María de la Concepción
AB The purpose of this work is twofold: to explain some of the limitations affectingtraditional approaches to theory success, and to outline a criterion for the comparativeevaluation of a theory’s empirical success. Empirical adequacy, predictive power,specification of causal mechanisms, and explanatory unification are here regarded as themain, not mutually exclusive kinds of theory success. From that basis, the traditionalquantitative criterion for theory success -mainly revolving around the number of atheory’s true empirical consequences-, is refined by adding some key qualitativerequirements specially focused on issues regarding a theory’s scope, predictive power,and possible adhocness. A special emphasis will be placed on the following issues: a)the superiority of prediction over accommodation (Lipton 1991/2004, Foster 2002), b)the resolution of non-refuting anomalies (Laudan 2000, Kuipers 2005), and c) thelimited use of ad hoc hypotheses (Thagard 1978, Leplin 1975).
PB Universidad de Nantes (Francia)
YR 2015
FD 2015
LK http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/22790
UL http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/22790
LA eng
NO Philosophia Scientiae, vol. 19, n.1, 71-84
DS UVaDOC
RD 23-nov-2024