The Reticulated Model of Rationality

The reticulated model, developed in Science and Values (1984), is Laudan's mature response to the positivist assumption that scientific aims are fixed and that methods and theories are adjusted to serve those aims. The model proposes instead that theories, methods, and aims form a web of mutual adjustment — changes at any level can drive revision at the others, but never all three at once. At any given moment, some elements are held fixed while others are revised; then the revised elements become the fixed ground from which the previously stable elements are themselves examined. The web evolves, but never in its entirety. This structure explains how rational revision is possible without appeal to a neutral standard outside the web — progress is made through the coordinated, sequential modification of elements that constrain each other.