Limits of a deductive construal of the function of scientific theories
pp. 1-15
in: Edna Ullmann-Margalit (ed), Science in reflection, Berlin, Springer, 1988Abstract
The goal and the proudest achievement of basic scientific inquiry is the construction of comprehensive theories which enable us to understand large sectors of the world, to predict, to retrodict, to explain what occurs in them. Any theory, however far-reaching and successful, eventually proves wanting in some respects and comes to be replaced by a superior alternative. The search of basic science is unending.