Principles, Laws and Theories

Abstract

This paper is essentially a summary of the central part of an ongoing project in which the attempt is being made to provide a comprehensive conception of modern science. A preliminary word might be said about the aim and method of the project. Its aim is not at all to be prescripti­ve, i.e. to suggest that modern science or any other epistemological activi­ty ought to be pursued in the way depicted here. Nor, however, is it intended to be descriptive — to provide general truths about the nature of science. Rather, one might say that the aim of the project is to be explanatory, that is, to provide a coherent understanding of modern science in which all its major aspects have a place, and in which its basic limits become clear.