Reflections: Theme 2

This week I will write some reflections on the topic of Theory in science and what I’ve learned about Theory after the seminar.

One thought that sprung to my mind was that Theory thinks about itself as Truth, but isn’t. Or maybe that Theory is the closest we can get to Truth with our limited understanding and reasoning about reality. 

On a more practical note I found that the article by Sutton & Staw (1995) very intriguing. There were a bunch of practical tips about what Theory is not, and a lot of them where really useful in my opinion. I really would have liked to read it before we wrote our bachelor thesis. I think our section of Theory then would have been a lot stronger in the sense as an argument.  

The second article by Gregor (2006) was a curious one because it rather stated that much of Theory is just in fact what Sutton & Staw (1995) said Theory wasn’t. This paradox was also something that we discussed at the seminar and we came to understand that Theory could be very different in definition according to whom you speak.

Another topic we talked about at the seminar was the question of when theory become Theory? The example with Copernicus was discussed in the sense that when no one understood Copernicus ideas they weren’t Theory. They were just mere ideas empirically measured, yes, but still only ideas. Evolving into Theory over time (when people came to recognize them and verify them as such).

We also discussed at the seminar that different theories could explain reality through different lenses with the same amount of data or input. It implies that a is b according to d, but it also implies that a is c according to e. The problem arise when d says that it’s impossible that a is both b and c, and e agrees. You get a set of Theories that collide, but no one has the understanding to combine these two to one (or aren’t willing to combine them).  This contradicts the understanding of Theory as something that describes the how, why and when of the world. Maybe there is therefore no such thing as a true Theory of Everything?  

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