No-Go Theorems: What Are They Good For?

TL;DR

This paper critically examines the role and implications of no-go theorems in scientific theory development, arguing that their methodological significance has been misunderstood historically.

Contribution

It provides an abstract assessment of no-go theorems and challenges common interpretations of their methodological implications.

Findings

No-go theorems have often been misinterpreted in scientific practice.

The methodological implications of no-go theorems are often overstated.

A reassessment shows disagreements with traditional views on no-go theorems' significance.

Abstract

No-go theorems have played an important role in the development and assessment of scientific theories. They have stopped whole research programs and have given rise to strong ontological commitments. Given the importance they obviously have had in physics and philosophy of physics and the huge amount of literature on the consequences of specific no-go theorems, there has been relatively little attention to the more abstract assessment of no-go theorems as a tool in theory development. We will here provide this abstract assessment of no-go theorems and conclude that the methodological implications one may draw from no-go theorems are in disagreement with the implications that have often been drawn from them in the history of science.