Some methodological problems of defining the concept of “scientific theory”

The emergence of a methodological program of logical positivism was largely conditioned by the evolution of mathematical logic. Following the sciences of the logical-mathematical cycle, the theory of natural sciences was supposed to be represented in the form of axiomatic systems of pure deduction. Therefore, it resulted in a universal definition of scientific theory as a set of statements of a certain formalized language, ordered by the relation of deductive inferability. Such ideas turned out to be insufficient for a correct description of the structure of the theories of natural sciences, which led to a model-theoretical approach in the philosophy of science. Equally, this interpretation of scientific theories proved to be too narrow for logic itself. The paper describes various approaches to defining the concept of scientific theory within the framework of standard and model-theoretical interpretations of scientific knowledge.

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