Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wp2c8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-22T08:22:50.423Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - What Is Theory?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

David Schmidtz
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
Get access

Summary

Thesis: Successful theories are maps, not attempts to specify necessary and sufficient conditions.

THEORIES ARE MAPS

Let us explore the idea that one way to see what a theory is, and what a theory can do, is to see a theory as a map. We begin with a terrain (a subject matter), and with questions about that terrain. Our questions spur us to build theories – maps of the terrain – that articulate and systematize our answers. To know how to reach Detroit, we need one kind of map. To know how to be a good person, we need another map. Note: Maps do not tell us where we want to go. Our questions predate our theorizing, and constitute our reasons to theorize in the first place.

Theories Are Abstractions

A map of Detroit is an artifact, an invention. So is a map of justice. In neither case does the terrain being mapped really look like that. A map of Detroit is stylized, abstract, and simplified. It otherwise would fail as a map. Yet a map can be accurate in the sense that it does not mislead. A given map will for some purposes have ample detail; for other purposes it will be oversimplified.

A map is not itself the reality. It is at best a serviceable representation. Moral theories likewise are more or less serviceable representations of a terrain. They cannot be more than that.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • What Is Theory?
  • David Schmidtz, University of Arizona
  • Book: The Elements of Justice
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511817519.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • What Is Theory?
  • David Schmidtz, University of Arizona
  • Book: The Elements of Justice
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511817519.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • What Is Theory?
  • David Schmidtz, University of Arizona
  • Book: The Elements of Justice
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511817519.005
Available formats
×