Individuals, Kinds and Names in Physics

It has been recognised for a long time that language plays a crucial role in science. The neopositivist philosophers were right when they put special emphasis on the analysis of the language of science. But is this analysis sufficient to clarify all the problems of the philosphy of science? Can science be reduced to a pure linguistic game — as Wittgenstein would put it — or is there something else? Surely science talks of something. Accordingly, the scientist must be aware of the relation existing between the language he uses and the things he is talking about. But here ends the ‘game’, if ever there was one, and formidable problems arise.