| >But isn't this a limiting process? That is, as theories make more
| >accurate and more general predictions we consider them better than
| >older theories which made less accurate and less general
| >predictions. Isn't the limit as t goes to infinity truth?
You might view the historical sequence of our mathematical models as
approaching a limit - in the sense that the calculated results become more
and more inclusive and useful (verifiable). That is because our measuring
instruments are just as naive as our senses, and see nothing deeper.
But our conceptual models do not fit into a smooth morphism. We have
experienced bifurcations - eg., we follow the particle route for certain
understandings and the wave route for others.
This may well be leading to a body of knowledge which is only grudgingly
forced into general propositions, but needs more and more to be uttered as
individual statements covering individual circumstances.