Myrvold, Wayne C. (2019) “— It would be possible to do a lengthy dialectical number on this;”. [Preprint]
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Abstract
Philosophers have, it seems, been beguiled by contingencies of the evolution of scientific language. These contingencies can obscure the nature of theoretical shifts. Retention of a term can obscure a radical theoretical shift, and abandonment of a term can obscure continuity of theory. In this paper, I consider the cases of caloric and the
luminiferous ether, both of which are often taken to be unproblematic cases of theoretical entities abandoned by
subsequent theories. I invite the reader to consider what we now might be saying were those terms retained, and
argue that this sheds light on the nature of the theoretical shifts involved.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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| Keywords: | ether, caloric, scientific realism, structural realism | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Chemistry Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory Specific Sciences > Physics > Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics |
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| Depositing User: | Wayne Myrvold | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 02 Dec 2019 00:41 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 02 Dec 2019 00:41 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 16675 | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Chemistry Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory Specific Sciences > Physics > Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics |
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| Date: | November 2019 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/16675 |
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