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Full Idea
In the empiricist tradition theories were understood to be deductive closures of sets of laws, explanations were understood as arguments from covering laws, and reduction was understood as a deductive relationship between laws of different theories.
Gist of Idea
Empiricist theories are sets of laws, which give explanations and reductions
Source
Stuart Glennan (Mechanisms [2008], 'Intro')
Book Ref
'Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science', ed/tr. Psillos,S/Curd,M [Routledge 2010], p.376
A Reaction
A lovely crisp summary of the whole tradition of philosophy of science from Comte through to Hempel. Mechanism and essentialism are the new players in the game.
Related Idea
Idea 17487 Mechanistic philosophy of science is an alternative to the empiricist law-based tradition [Glennan]
| 21950 | Science must clear away the idols of the mind if they are ever going to find the truth [Bacon] |
| 18971 | Theories are practical tools for progress, not answers to enigmas [James] |
| 5391 | Science aims to find uniformities to which (within the limits of experience) there are no exceptions [Russell] |
| 3856 | Good theories have empirical content, explain a lot, and are not falsified [Popper, by Newton-Smith] |
| 17508 | Science aims at truth, not at 'simplicity' [Putnam] |
| 12669 | Science aims to explain things, not just describe them [Ellis] |
| 15225 | Science investigates the nature and constitution of things or substances [Harré/Madden] |
| 15298 | We prefer the theory which explains and predicts the powers and capacities of particulars [Harré/Madden] |
| 14917 | To accept a scientific theory, we only need to believe that it is empirically adequate [Fraassen] |
| 19007 | A theory need not be true to be good; it should just be true about its physical aspects [Yablo] |
| 7026 | Science is sometimes said to classify powers, neglecting qualities [Heil] |
| 15207 | We want illuminating theories, rather than coherent theories [Le Poidevin] |
| 14988 | A theory which doesn't fit nature is unexplanatory, even if it is true [Sider] |
| 17488 | Empiricist theories are sets of laws, which give explanations and reductions [Glennan] |
| 20736 | Science has to abstract out the subjective attributes of things, focusing on what is objective [Aho] |