THE GST CHALLENGE TO THE CLASSICAL PHILOSOPHIES OF SCIENCE

Abstract

General systems theories (GSTs) present a serious challenge to the dominant philosophies of science, namely inductivism (empiricism) and deductivism (rationalism). In fact, according to these philosophies GSTs are nonscientific because they fail to yield precise predictions, whence they are neither confirmable nor refutable in a rather direct fashion. Hence either we accept this verdict or we change the definition of a scientific theory to make room in science for GSTs, thereby rejecting those classical philosophies. The latter course is adopted in this paper. New definitions of a scientific theory are proposed and examined, until one is found that accomodates both traditional theories and GSTs. Scientific theories are then ordered by their degree of generality, from the most specific ones—which are those the classical philosophers of science had in mind—to the extremely general ones, which may be said to be philosophical as well as scientific. The kind of test such hypergeneral theories can be subjected to is discussed. Also, the new relation between science and philosophy that emerges from the broader criterion of scientificity is examined.