Faraday to Einstein: Constructing Meaning in Scientific Theories

I. The Philosophical Situation: A Critical Appraisal.- 1: The 'standard' account of meaning.- 1.1 General characterization.- 1.1 The 'double-language' view.- 2: 'Meaning variance' and 'incommensurability'.- 2.1 The 'network' view.- 2.2 Shipwrecked.- 2.3 Is there meaning after Feyerabend?.- II. The Scientific Situation: An Historical Analysis.- 3: Faraday's 'lines of force'.- 3.1 Initial conception.- 3.2 Electromagnetic rotations.- 3.3 Electromagnetic induction.- 3.4 Electrostatic induction.- 3.5 Magnetic induction.- 3.6 The aether.- 3.7 Summary: Faraday's concept of field.- 4: Maxwell's 'Newtonian aether-field'.- 4.1 The "representative lines of force".- 4.2 The method of "physical analogy".- 4.3 The "physical lines of force".- 4.4 'Mechanical' to 'dynamical'.- 4.5 Summary: Maxwell's concept of field.- 5: Lorentz' 'non-Newtonian aether-field'.- 5.1 An enigmatic scientist.- 5.2 Rapprochement.- 5.3 The immobile aether.- 5.4 Lorentz' interpretation of the 'Lorentz transformations'.-5.5 Summary: L'éther pour toujours.- 6: Einstein's 'field'.- 6.1 Critical reflections.- 6.2 'Electromagnetic field' in the special theory.- 6.3 Introduction: The gravitational field concept.- III. The Making of Meaning: A Proposal.- 7: Meaning in scientific practice.- 7.1 Constructing the field concept.- 7.2 'Meaning schemata' and commensurability.- Notes.