Laws, Theories, and Research Programs

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses laws, theories, and research programs. In the empirical sciences, the informal distinction between observational laws and proper theories plays a crucial role. Observational laws are supposed to describe observationally—usually experimentally—established regularities. Different names for roughly the same concept are: empirical, experimental or phenomenological laws, reproducible effects, inductive generalizations, and general facts. Proper theories or systems of theoretical laws (together with definitions and other conventions), on the other hand, are supposed to explain such laws and to predict new ones, by postulating underlying mechanisms. The law-distinction forms a crucial construction principle for the hierarchy of knowledge. Therefore, it is an important heuristic factor in the dynamics of knowledge development. However, it has occasioned philosophers of science much brain-racking to explicate the law-distinction in a defensible way. Without doubt, the distinction is strongly related to the distinction between observational (or empirical or experimental) and theoretical terms. Whereas proper theories introduce theoretical terms, observational laws do not.