Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-03T15:55:29.313Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Replacing One Theory by Another Under Preservation of a Given Feature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Rolf A. Eberle
Rolf A. Eberle*
Affiliation:
The University of Rochester
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The conditions are examined under which one theory is said to be replaceable by another, while preserving those features of the original theory which made it serviceable for a given purpose. Among such replacements, special attention is given to ones which qualify as so-called reductions of a theory, and some theorems are proved concerning the notion of a reduction.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , December 1971 , pp. 486 - 501
Copyright
Copyright © 1971 by The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

For their valuable suggestions I am especially indebted to Henry E. Kyburg, Jr., as well as to an anonymous referee whose specific criticism prompted some revisions and numerous additions.

References

[1] Adams, E. W. “The Foundations of Rigid Body Mechanics and the Derivation of its Laws from those of Particle Mechanics.” The Axiomatic Method. Edited by Henkin, L., Suppes, P., and Tarski, A. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company, 1959, pp. 250–65.Google Scholar
[2] Feyerabend, P. K. “Explanation, Reduction, and Empiricism.” Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 3. Edited by H. Feigl and G. Maxwell. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1962, pp. 28–97.Google Scholar
[3] Mates, B. Elementary Logic. Oxford University Press. 1965.Google Scholar
[4] Nagel, E. “The Meaning of Reduction in the Natural Sciences.” Philosophy of Science. Edited by Danto, A. and Morgenbesser, S. Cleveland: Meridian Books, 1960, pp. 288–312.Google Scholar
[5] Quine, W. V. “Ontological Reduction and the World of Numbers.” The Ways of Paradox and Other Essays. New York: Random House, 1966, pp. 199–207.Google Scholar
[6] Schaffner, K. F. “Approaches to Reduction.” Philosophy of Science 34 (June 1967): 137–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[7] Suppes, P. Introduction to Logic. Princeton: Van Nostrand, 1957.Google Scholar
[8] Tarski, A. “On Some Fundamental Concepts of Metamathematics.” Logic, Semantics, Metamathematics. Oxford: 1956, pp. 30–37.Google Scholar
[9] Tarski, A., Mostowski, A., and Robinson, R. M. Undecidable Theories. Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1953.Google Scholar