ABSTRACT
The German structuralists undoubtedly offer the most satisfactory detailed and well illustrated account of the structure of scientific theories on offer, and Gähde’s work on the relations between theories has added considerably to it. Their account of theory structure also has a place for the relations of theory to the world, and it is here that one of my chief concerns intersects theirs. As Gähde notes, the significant difference between us is that I suppose that the starting “unprepared” description to which we will match a representative model contains ‘any information thought to be relevant’, whereas for the structuralist it contains only data that are ‘part of the model to which the corresponding finite data set is to be extended’ (Gähde this volume: 7).
