Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-8zxtt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T06:32:24.592Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Ideal Scientific Theory: A Thought Experiment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Ervin Laszlo
Ervin Laszlo*
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Geneseo
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To overcome sociopsychologism and historical relativism, the growth of science is deduced from the combined effect of postulated invariant controls, in the form of enduring ideals of science, in their interaction with nature. The thus constituted “cybernetics-of-science” concept permits extrapolation from present to future states of science. The ideal scientific theory is the goal or target toward which the scientific process is oriented, by virtue of its invariant controls. The form of the ideal theory can thus be extrapolated, and some speculative hypotheses advanced as to its contents, taking those of the recently emerged constructs of science as basis which best accord with the predicted form of the theory.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , March 1973 , pp. 75 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © 1973 by The Philosophy of Science Association

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.)

References

REFERENCES

[1] Bertalanffy, L. von. Problems of Life. New York: John Wiley, 1952.Google Scholar
[2] Bohm, D. “Some Remarks on the Notion of Order.” in Towards A Theoretical Biology. Vol. II. Edited by C. H. Waddington. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 1969.Google Scholar
[3] Bronowski, J. “New Concepts in the Evolution of Complexity: Stratified Stability and Unbounded Plans.” Zygon 5 (1970): 33–34.10.1111/j.1467-9744.1970.tb00181.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
[4] De Groot, S. R., and Mazur, P. Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics. Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Co., 1962.Google Scholar
[5] Einstein, A. The World As I See It. New York: Covici-Friede, 1934.Google Scholar
[6] Elsasser, W. M. The Physical Foundations of Biology. Elmsford, New York: Pergamon, 1958.Google Scholar
[7] Heisenberg, W. Philosophic Problems of Nuclear Science. London: Faber and Faber, 1952.Google Scholar
[8] Katchalsky, A. “Thermodynamics of Flow and Biological Organization.” Zygon 6 (1971).10.1111/j.1467-9744.1971.tb00707.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
[9] Katchalsky, A. and Curran, P. Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics in Biophysics. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1965.10.4159/harvard.9780674494121CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[9a] Laszlo, E. “A General Systems Model of the Evolution of Science.” Scientia 107 (1972).Google Scholar
[10] Lefever, R., Nicolis, G., and Prigogine, I. “On the Occurrence of Oscillations Around the Steady State in Systems of Chemical Reactions far from Equilibrium.” Journal of Chemical Physics 47 (1967).10.1063/1.1711987CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[11] Onsager, L. “Reciprocal Relations in Irreversible Processes.” Physical Review 37 and 38 (1931).10.1103/PhysRev.37.405CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[12] Polanyi, M. “Life Transcending Physics and Chemistry.” Chemical and Engineering News 45 (1967).10.1021/cen-v045n035.p054CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[13] Polanyi, M. “Life's Irreducible Structure.” Science 160 (1968).10.1126/science.160.3834.1308CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
[14] Prigogine, I. “Structure, Dissipation, and Life.” in Theoretical Physics and Biology. Edited by Marois, M. Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Co., 1969.Google Scholar
[15] Turing, A. M. “The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis.” In Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. (1952).Google Scholar
[16] Wigner, E. P. “The Probability of the Existence of a Self-Reproducing Unit.” in The Logic of Personal Knowledge. Edited by Shils, E. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1961.Google Scholar