HUSSERL ON SCIENTIFIC METHOD AND CONCEPTUAL CHANGE - A REALIST APPRAISAL

Husserl claimed that all theoretical scientific concepts originate in and are valid in reference to 'life-world' experience and that scienti fic traditions preserve the sense and validity of such concepts throug h unitary and cumulative change. Each of these claims will, in turn, b e sympathetically laid out and assessed in comparison with more standa rd characterizations of scientific method and conceptual change as wel l as the history of physics, concerning particularly the challenge the y may pose for scientific realism. The Husserlian phenomenological fra mework is accepted here without defense, and hence the present project is limited to the task of asking what can and cannot be accommodated within that framework on its own terms.