Abstract
One of the central concerns of Heinz Post’s work in the philosophy of science has involved problems of intertheory relations, both with respect to the diachronic correspondence between successive theories and the synchronic reduction of one theory to another. The general correspondence principle articulated by Post (1971) demands that successor theories and reducing theories should conserve the successes of replaced theories and reduced theories, respectively, while overcoming their perceived flaws. Post’s thesis is that unification by means of theory reduction and `conservative induction’ in the formulation of new theories, providing that the correspondence principle is satisfied, are progressive procedures and, hence, goals worth pursuing in science. The aim of this paper is to evaluate what the prospects are for a final `end-product’ for these unifying processes of theory evolution and theory reduction.
A version of this paper was delivered as the Presidential Address to the British Society for the Philosophy of Science on 15th October 1990. I dedicate it to my friend and teacher Heinz Post. Some of the material was subsequently included in my Tamer Lectures, ‘From Physics to Metaphysics’, delivered in Cambridge in February 1993.
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Redhead, M. (1993). Is the End of Physics in Sight?. In: French, S., Kamminga, H. (eds) Correspondence, Invariance and Heuristics. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 148. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1185-2_16
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