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Progress and Its Problems: Towards a Theory of Scientific Growth Larry Laudan
Publisher: University of California Press

Most importantly, Laudan implicitly assumes that we can't specify a standard for measuring scientific progress (say, truth) if we have no epistemic access to evidence that would allow evaluation of how far science has progressed towards that standard. The great unsolved problems of your time look like missing puzzle pieces, while the tools, equations and current theories begin to look like misshapen pieces that don't quite fit where they're supposed to. Although coarse-grain system dynamics models were used in the past to predict the growth and development of scientific research, among the limitations of their use include (1) lack of heterogeneity in terms of individuals' decisions, actions, career choices, as well as learning and . In addition to the actual growth of science and scientific activity, there has been much effort to show that such progress benefits the economy through a line of investigation tying basic research to patents production. Laudan L: Progress and its Problems: Toward a Theory of Scientific Growth. An explicit model of knowledge production that converts human, financial, and knowledge capital into resources (e.g., open problems, skills), which are then transformed into solutions and products. Image credit: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory / Paul Preuss / Michael Crommie. What a theory is supposed to do etc etc. Larry Laudan's 'Progress and its problems: Towards a theory of scientific growth' explains this beautifully. I do think Laudan at least makes a good case that the rationality of scientists accepting a theory can be understood in terms of how effective the theory is at solving the problems the scientists are concerned with. An international group of astronomers believe they have answered the question of how young stars are able to fuel the growth of their own stars. Results: migration towards USA. In other words, you've run up against the limits of our current knowledge; to make any further progress is going to take an innovation that's not yet a part of our scientific lexicon. Progress and Its Problems: Towards a Theory of Scientific Growth. Berkeley: University of California Press; 1977. Progress and Its Problems: Toward a Theory of Scientific Growth. Longino HE: Science as Social Knowledge: Values and Objectivity in Scientific Inquiry.