UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS Urbana Chicago London The Structure of Scientific Theories Second Edition Edited with a Critical Introduction and an Afterword by FREDERICK SUPTETo Max Haroun Fisce ‘on hie retirement © 1977 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois Moore inthe Unt Str omer Secon Eaton syowo AVBZ3S Man entry der tle: “The Structure of sient theories. Inches Indeses Tr Selence=Philesophy—Congresses. 1. Suppe, os resin Preface to the Second Edition Response to the first edition has been very satisfying; sales have been brisk and critical reviews have been most kind. Even more gratifying to me personally is the fact that both the Press and I have been inundated. with requests (sometimes bordering on demands) that my long editorial introduction be made available in an inexpensive form suitable for use as a text in philosophy of science courses. Meeting this request posed certain problems, not the least of which is that my introduction had become somewhat dated as a result of rather dramatic developments in phi- losophy of science since the 1969 symposium. Accordingly, in bringing out a paperback edition we decided to update it by adding a substantial Afterword which details how the post-positivistie confusion and disarray within philosophy of science at the time of the symposium (displayed graphically in the symposium portion of this volume) is becoming re~ solved and has led to the more coherent state of the field today. The Afterword also expands the scope of the volume (hence its usefulness as a textbook) by including discussions of developments on issues such as explanation and induction which received only slight attention in the introduction. In addition to the Afterword errata have been corrected and changes have been made at a few places in my editorial introduction. The Bibliography which Rew A. Godow, Jr., compiled for the first edition has ‘been revised and expanded substantially. Hopefully these changes and the addition of the Afterword will provide a more comprehensive and Up-to-date account of where philosophy of scfence is today and how it got there, thus increasing the usefulness of the volume. In an effort to make the paperback cost sufficiently low to permit use of the volume in the classroom, in producing the second edition we have attempted to minimize the resetting of type. Hence we opted for an Afterword rather than an extensive revision and expansion of my editorial introduction; and a separate supplementary index has been provided for the Afterword. In preparing the second edition I owe special debits to Edward C, Mascotti; Gertrude C. Supe; my colleagues Lindley Darden,Vi The Structure of Scientific Theories Michael Gardner, and especially Dudley Shape tary, Mangaret-Mary Ryan, Again it has been University of Mlinois Press and have Ms, Bruce McDaniel as my copy. editor. Financial support for doing the revision was provided by a grant from the University of Maryland General Research Board, and some of the research reported was supported by NSF grant GS-39677, FREDERICK Suere Washington, D. February, 1977 sand my former seere- a pleasure to work with the Preface ‘This volume is an outgrowth of a symposium on the structure of scientific theories held in Urbana, March 26 to 29, 1969. The call for the symposium was as follows: Traditionally philosophers of science have construed scientific theories as axiomatic calculi in which theoretical terms and statements are given «partial observational interpretation by means of correspondence rules. Recently the adequacy ofthis analysis has been challenged by a number of philosophers, historians of science, and scientists. A number of alter- native analyses ofthe structure of theories have been proposed and dis. cussed. The purpose of this symposium isto bring together a number of ‘the main proponents and crities of the traditional analysis, proponents ‘of some of the more important alternative analyses, historians of science, and scientists to explore the question “What is the structure of a scientific theory?” The views held by the various participants in the symposium are fairly representative of the current spectrum of philosophical thinking about the nature of scientific theories, and so the symposium proceedings offer a revealing picture of what philosophers currently think about the nature of theories and their roles in the scientific enterprise. A revised and edited version of the symposium proceedings constitutes the bulk of this volume. Each author has had the opportunity to revise both his paper and his remarks during the discussions; editorial inter- polations (always clearly indicated) have been inserted to resolve ‘any incompatibilities resulting from such revisions. For various reasons three of the participants were unable to prepare revised manuscripts for publication; in two of these cases I have supplied whatever material ‘was necessary to preserve the continuity of the proceedings (clearly indicating where this was done), and in the third case a replacement paper has been included. In a few cases it seemed desirable to alter the order of the discussions or pare the discussions, and I have done so without giving any indications when it has been done. As such the Proceedings published here do not purport to be a historically accurate