Philosophers have, it seems, been beguiled by contingencies of the evolution of scientific language. These contingencies can obscure the nature of theoretical shifts. Retention of a term can obscure a radical theoretical shift, and abandonment of a term can obscure continuity of theory. In this paper, I consider the cases of caloric and the luminiferous ether, both of which are often taken to be unproblematic cases of theoretical entities abandoned by subsequent theories. I invite the reader to consider what we might now be saying were those terms retained, and argue that this sheds light on the nature of the theoretical shifts involved..

中文翻译：

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“ —可以对此做一个冗长的辩证数字；”

哲学家似乎被科学语言发展的偶然性所迷惑。这些意外情况可能会掩盖理论转变的本质。保留术语可以掩盖根本的理论转变，而术语的遗弃可以掩盖理论的连续性。在本文中，我考虑了热量和发光醚的情况，这两种情况通常被认为是后续理论所抛弃的理论实体的无问题案例。我邀请读者考虑我们现在所说的保留这些术语，并认为这为所涉及的理论转变的性质提供了启示。