Distances, diameters and verisimilitude of theories (Q2277436)

This paper is an attempt of giving some useful tools to Popper's verisimilitude problem by using the new concept of pointless metric space [see the author's paper ``Pointless metric spaces'', J. Symb. Logic 55, No.1, 207-219 (1990; Zbl 0721.54029)]. Namely, if \({\mathcal T}\) is the class of physical theories under consideration, a distance \(\delta\) : \({\mathcal T}\times {\mathcal T}\to [0,\infty)\) and a diameter \(| |: {\mathcal T}\to [0,\infty]\) are defined. The structure so obtained is a pointless metric space and therefore the properties of these two functions are very likely to the properties of the usual distance and diameter for subsets of a metric space. The distance between two theories T and \(T'\) is a measure of the contrast between T and \(T'\); the diameter of T is a measure of the incompleteness of T. If V represents ``the truth'', that is the set of true sentences in the pyhsical word, the verisimilitude of a theory T is defined as a suitable function of \(\delta\) (T,V) and \(| T|\).