Conservatism as a Norm of Scientific Practice

Philosophy of Science Colloquium
The Institute Vienna Circle holds a Philosophy of Science Colloquium with talks by our present fellows.

Date: 15/01/2026

Time: 16h45

Venue: New Institute Building (NIG), Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien, HS 2i

Abstract:

Contemporary scientists extol the virtues of conservatism, the view that advocates the preservation of the theoretical status quo and castigates everything beyond this as unfounded speculation. More generally, conservatives emphasize that science has been almost always cumulative, and scientific progress has been almost always made through evolution, rather than revolution. They further suggest that contemporary science should be cumulative, and that it should make progress through evolution, rather than revolution.

In this talk, I provide a brief historical-conceptual analysis of conservatism as a norm that urges us to preserve the theoretical status quo, extend its intended domain of resiliency to the furthest extent possible, and only allow changes if we have stronger reasons to accept some theoretical alternative. I then focus on a specific expression of conservatism - the so-called principle of permanence - which has been extremely influential since mid-19th century in both mathematics and physics, in an attempt to determine, more precisely, the kinds of normativity that conservatism is thought to have.