Hostname: page-component-6dbcb7884d-wnk8j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-13T15:27:43.083Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Similarity as an Intertheory Relation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Geoffrey Gorham
Geoffrey Gorham*
Affiliation:
Cornell College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In line with the semantic conception of scientific theories, I develop an account of the intertheory relation of comparative structural similarity. I argue that this relation is useful in explaining the concept of verisimilitude and I support this contention with a concrete historical example. Finally, I defend this relation against the familiar charge that the concept of similarity is insufficiently objective.

Type
Philosophical Issues in Cognitive Science
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 63 , Issue S3: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1996 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers Sep., 1996. , 1996 , pp. S220 - S229
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1996

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.)

Footnotes

†

I would like to thank Ron Giere and Paul Meehl for comments on an earlier version of this paper.

‡

Department of Philosophy, Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, IA 52314.

References

Aronson, J. L., Harré, R. and Way, E. C. (1995), Realism Rescued. Chicago: Open Court.Google Scholar
Bohr, N. (1913), “On The Constitution of Atoms and Molecules”, Philosophical Magazine 26: 1–25.Google Scholar
Giere, R. N. (1988), Explaining Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodman, N. (1970), “Seven Strictures on Similarity”, in Foster, L. and Swanson, J. W. (eds.), Experience and Theory. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar
Hempel, C. (1965), Aspects of Scientific Explanation. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, M. A. and Maggiora, G. (1990), Concepts and Applications of Molecular Similarity. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1993), The Advancement of Science. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Meehl, P. E. (1990), “Appraising and Amending Theories”, Psychological Inquiry 1: 108–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagel, E. (1979), The Structure of Science. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Newton-Smith, W. H. (1981), The Rationality of Science. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niiniluoto, I. (1987), Truthlikeness. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oddie, G. (1986), Likeness to Truth. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutherford, E. (1911), “The Scattering of a and b Particles by Matter and the Structure of the Atom”, Philosophical Magazine 21: 669–688.Google Scholar
Sokal, R. and Sneath, P. (1963), Principles of Numerical Taxonomy. San Francisco: Freeman and Co.Google Scholar
Suppe, F. (1989), The Semantic Conception of Theories and Scientific Realism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Thomson, J. J. (1904), “On the Structure of the Atom”, Philosophical Magazine 7: 237–265.Google Scholar
Urbach, P. (1983), “Intimations of Similarity: The Shaky Basis of Verisimilitude”, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 34: 266–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Fraassen, B. (1989), Laws and Symmetry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vosniadou, S. and Ortony, A. (1989), Similarity and Analogical Reasoning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar