ABSTRACT
Buchanan, Scott Science is an allegory that asserts that the relations between the parts of reality are similar to the relations between terms of discourse.
Dingle, Herbert . . . if, as we must surely do, we wish to characterize science by the elements in it that persist and grow, and not by that which continually changes, we must recognize . . . the progressive discovery of relations between the various constituents of our experience, . . . Amid all the changes of theories and pictures and conceptions, the relations remain and steadily accumulate. Franklin found that lightning was a manifestation of the electric ether revealed in laboratory experiments. The electric ether has disappeared, and other theories of electricity have in turn succeeded it and disappeared also, but the relation between lightning and laboratory sparks remains. Maxwell established a relation between light and electromagnetic oscillations. His ether also has gone, but the relation stays. All permanent advances in science are discoveries of relations between phenomena, and the factor in science that shows a steady uninterrupted growth is the extent of the field of related observations.
