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Mechanism of Theory Pursuit (view source)
Revision as of 13:26, 13 April 2017
, 13:26, 13 April 2017no edit summary
Feyerabend criticized Lakatos’ degenerating programs as having no set time limit on when to stop pursuing them. A program could become degenerative and stay this way for millions of years but to Lakatos it will always be available for pursuit. Feyerabend believed there had to be a sharp line as to where and when a program becomes not worth pursuing.[[CiteRef::Motterlini (Ed.) (1999)|p. 9]] In contrast to Lakatos’ understanding of the mechanisms of theory pursuit, Feyerabend believed that all theories are worth pursuing at all times, a much more anarchical view.
However, there were other philosophers who thought that there ''can'' be rules telling us which theories are pursuit worthy. In his [[Laudan (19771977a)|''Progress and Its Problems'']], [[Larry Laudan]] devises a methodological rule indicating when it is rational to pursue a certain research tradition. According to Laudan, "''it is always rational to pursue any research tradition which has a higher rate of progress than its rivals''".[[CiteRef::Laudan (19771977a)|p. 111]]
In another example, for Kuhn, a theory would become worth pursuit so long as it satisfied the method of the time and views.[[CiteRef::Godfrey-Smith|p 91-92]]
