CHAINS OF MEANING - A MODEL FOR CONCEPT-FORMATION IN CONTEMPORARY PHYSICS THEORIES

The rationality of scientific concept formation in theory transitions, challenged by the thesis of semantic incommensurability, can be resto red by the Chains of Meaning approach to concept formation. According to this approach, concepts of different, succeeding theories may be id entified with respect to referential meaning, in spite of grave divers ity of the mathematical structures characterizing them in their respec tive theories. The criterion of referential identity for concepts is t hat they meet a relation of semantic embedding, i.e. that the embeddin g concept can be substituted by the embedded one in ''classical limit' ' situations. Three case studies from contemporary physics theories wi ll be used to show that the Chains of Meaning approach not only yields meaning comparisons for already established concepts (as for Newtonia n and Schwarzschild mass) but is also well suited to characterize actu al scientific strategies of concept formation in yet open cases such a s black hole entropy or relativistic thermodynamics.