Scientific Theories as Practical Thought: An Aristotelian-Anscombean reading of Duhem’s The Aim and Structure of Physical Theories

This paper proposes a novel reading of Pierre Duhem’s The Aim and Structure of Physical Theories that draws on the account of practical thought developed by Elizabeth Anscombe, Michael Thompson, and Sebastian Rödl. On this “hylomorphic” way of understanding action and activity, it will turn out that a scientific theory just is a special kind of practical thought, and that Duhem’s “holism” is a manifestation of a more general indeterminacy inherent in practical thought.