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hey meet something (5) which has properties E, F, G, and H, and so on. In the history of their use of the word W, no doubt over many years, each new application is to something with most of its qualities in common with its predecessor – the application of the word W is simply done naturally and unthinkingly. But by the time they get to (5) we are dealing with something that has none of its properties in common with (1).

(1)       A   B   C   D

(2)             B   C   D    E

(3)                   C   D   E   F

(4)                         D   E   F    G

(5)                               E   F    G   H

This is an abstract representation of a family resemblance portrait. Moreover, it is a perfectly good natural explanation of how a natural language easily applies to newly encountered objects. It also illustrates why the relation ‘very closely resembles’ is non-transitive.

A relation R is transitive iff (if and only if): If A has R to B, and B has R to C, then A has R to C. (e.g. the relation ‘is taller than’)

A relation R is intransitive iff: If A has R to B, and B has R to C, then A does not have R to C. (e.g. the relation ‘is mother of’)

A relation R is non-transitive iff: it is neither transitive nor intransitive; i.e. if A has R to B, and B has R to C. then A may or may not have R to C. (e.g. the relation ‘is a former colleague of’).

I contend that we cannot formulate a definition of a theory (unless it is a stipulative one, which of course is always possible) because of the size of this family!

2. Scientific Prescriptivism

During the 20th century there was a strong and very influential movement to develop an account of a scientific theory which would then be the template for all theories worth the name. Not only did this fail for science but it had a perverse influence on the social sciences and the humanities.

To generalize, the model proposed was the hypothetico-deductive model of theories. A theory involved three elements:

(1)     A set of (explanatory) hypotheses, each bearing on a common subject matter – the greater the number and/or generality of these hypotheses, the more comprehensive the theory.
(2)     A set of descriptions of the sorts of data to which the theory would apply, i.e. which could be subsumed under the hypotheses - sometimes these are described as initial conditions.
(3)     A set of deducible consequences; i.e. for any given sub-set of the data (i.e. for any given specification of a sub-set of initial conditions) there would be a sub-set of consequences which could be deduced from the conjunction of those initial conditions and the hypotheses under which they are subsumed.

A theory would be tested by establishing wh本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。