Abstract

This book is based on some of Suppe's revised published and unpublished papers with eight new chapters. Having written a definitive critical study of the positivist Received Theory in The Structure of Scientific Theories, Suppe has now "undertaken to provide the most comprehensive discussion of the Semantic Conception of Theories yet attempted...". The Semantic Conception derives its name from the fact that it "construes theories as what their formulations refer to when the formulations are given a semantic interpretation".