Conclusion

Abstract

I do not plan to specifically argue that I have established the thesis of the book, namely, that our research program is a progressive one. It is for the reader to decide, on the basis of the material presented in Chapters II, IV, and VI, whether the theory anchoring the program both helps us to explain our data and, together with the auxiliary hypotheses, predicts hitherto unknown, novel facts. Nor do I intend to argue here that the theory generates more interesting consequences and can correctly represent more interesting pieces of knowledge than any of its competitors. Readers with a firm grasp on (the outstanding data facing) other research programs must decide which provides the most natural, elegant, and unified treatment of the variety of basic problems tackled here. Instead, I would like to end with a few paragraphs in which I conjecture about the even greater variety of future research possibilities which flower in the foregoing formal garden. I will identify issues which may be of interest to logicians, pure and applied metaphysicians, linguists, and pure and applied epistemologists.