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A rapidly growing body of scholarship shows that we can gain new insights into theories and policies by understanding and increasing their systemic structure. This paper will present an overview of this expanding field and discuss how concepts of structure are being applied in a variety of contexts to support collaboration, decision making, learning, prediction, and results. Next, it will delve into the underlying structures of logic that may be found within those theories and policies. Here, we will go beyond Toulmin's logics of claim and proof that have not proven useful for advancing the social sciences and focus on five structures of 'causal logic.' The results suggest a useful and more comprehensive approach to developing deeper understanding of our conceptual systems such as theory and policy., Author(s): Steven E. Wallis[sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: Steven E. Wallis earned his PhD in 2006 at Fielding Graduate University, focusing on the rigorous analysis and integration of conceptual systems. He [...]

The historical origins of Kuhn's notion of incommensurability and the significant similarities and differences between Kuhn and Feyerabend's routes to their notions and Feyerabends's notion of incommensurability is discussed. It is felt that Feyerabend's early philosophy was a series of critiques of different forms of conceptual conservatism based on Duhem's insight wherein older ideas were replaced by newer ones in the course of scientific advance.