So, even though our stock of known theories is indeed snowballing, just as our stock of recorded facts is, that still does not necessarily make the whole structure harder to understand than it used to be. For while our specific theories are becoming more numerous and more detailed, they are continually being ‘demoted’ as the understanding they contain is taken over by deep, general theories. And those theories are becoming fewer, deeper and more general. By ‘more general’ I mean that each of them says more, about a wider range of situations, than several distinct theories did previously. By
...more
