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Are There No Things That Are Scientific Theories?

French, S.; Vickers, P.

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Authors

S. French



Abstract

The ontological status of theories themselves has recently re-emerged as a live topic in the philosophy of science. We consider whether a recent approach within the philosophy of art can shed some light on this issue. For many years philosophers of aesthetics have debated a paradox in the (meta)ontology of musical works (e.g. Levinson [1980]). Taken individually, there are good reasons to accept each of the following three propositions: (i) musical works are created; (ii) musical works are abstract objects; (iii) abstract objects cannot be created. However it seems clear that, if one wants to avoid inconsistency, one cannot commit to all three. Following up recent developments courtesy of Cameron ([2008a]), we consider how one might respond to the corresponding set of propositions in the (meta)ontology of scientific theories.

Citation

French, S., & Vickers, P. (2011). Are There No Things That Are Scientific Theories?. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 62(4), 771-804. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjps/axr011

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jan 1, 2011
Deposit Date Aug 25, 2011
Publicly Available Date Feb 12, 2013
Journal The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
Print ISSN 0007-0882
Electronic ISSN 1464-3537
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 62
Issue 4
Pages 771-804
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/bjps/axr011

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Copyright Statement
This is a pre-copy-editing author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in British journal for the philosophy of science following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version French, S. and Vickers, P. (2011) 'Are there no things that are scientific theories ?', British journal for the philosophy of science., 62 (4). pp. 771-804 is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjps/axr011







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