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Full Idea
Science has seven closed systems of concepts and axioms: Newtonian mechanics; the theory of heat; electricity and magnetism; quantum theory; the theory of elementary particles; general relativity; and the theory of organic life.
Gist of Idea
Seven theories in science: mechanics, heat, electricity, quantum, particles, relativity, life
Source
report of Werner Heisenberg (Physics and Philosophy [1958], 06) by PG - Db (ideas)
Book Ref
Heisenberg,Werner: 'Physics and Philosophy' [Penguin 1989], p.86
A Reaction
[my summary of pp.86-88 and 92] It is interesting to have spelled out that there are number of 'closed' theories, which are only loosely connected to one another. New discoveries launch whole new theories, instead of being subsumed.
17549 | Seven theories in science: mechanics, heat, electricity, quantum, particles, relativity, life [Heisenberg, by PG] |
8365 | Some laws are causal (Ohm's Law), but others are conceptual principles (conservation of energy) [Wright,GHv] |
17690 | Oaken conditional laws, Iron universal laws, and Steel necessary laws [Armstrong, by PG] |
6616 | Least action is not a causal law, but a 'global law', describing a global essence [Ellis] |
15862 | Laws can come from data, from theory, from imagination and concepts, or from procedures [Harré] |
15870 | Are laws of nature about events, or types and universals, or dispositions, or all three? [Harré] |
15871 | Are laws about what has or might happen, or do they also cover all the possibilities? [Harré] |
3407 | Laws are either 'strict', or they involve a 'ceteris paribus' clause [Kim] |
6781 | There are fundamental explanatory laws (false!), and phenomenological laws (regularities) [Cartwright,N, by Bird] |
16166 | Laws of appearances are 'phenomenological'; laws of reality are 'theoretical' [Cartwright,N] |
9488 | Laws are either disposition regularities, or relations between properties [Bird] |