Scientific Progress, Understanding and Unification

Sorin Bangu

I review critically several accounts of scientific progress and discuss in some detail the most recent one, which I call the knowledge-accumulation account. While I am largely sympathetic to it, I argue that it leaves out an important component of the notion of progress, namely the role of scientific understanding. A sketch of a complementary (understanding-accumulation) view is offered, which construes understanding in terms of unification.