Abstract

Foundationalism is the thesis that there is an epistemologically significant distinction between fundamental science and the special sciences. Foundationalism commits us to the idea that ontology is an issue ultimately resolvable into fundamental science. If Foundationalism is assumed Ockham’s razor can be understood as guided by such view of ontology and leads to the idea that the advancement of science involves dispensing with the ontology of the special sciences. If Foundationalism is rejected Ockam’s razor can be rather understood as guided by the epistemic aim of achieving understanding, and that requires not the throwing away but the accommodation of heterogeneous representations. In this case the ontology of science cannot be associated with things that are simple and concrete but rather, with things that are complex and abstract.