Dear Colleagues, friends and professors,
By exploring in the dictionary we find the following definition for a theory:
* a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained.
"Darwin's theory of evolution"
* a set of principles on which the practice of an activity is based.
"a theory of education"
* an idea used to account for a situation or justify a course of action.
"my theory would be that the place has been seriously mismanaged"
Control is proven to be applicable in several applications. Hence, according to these definitions, why can/do we still call control a theory?
Thank you very much for sharing your valuable ideas.
He should have said "Control Theory", which is a well-known topic in engineering. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_theory
Agree. The question has been formulated similar to this: Why we call evolution a theory when in fact it is a process? one just cannot separate the words from a compound name and then treat them as if they would lack independent existence.
Thank you for your comments. "Control theory" deals with mathematical tools for analysis and improving of dynamic systems' behavior. The developed methods could be applied in various range of networks and plants. Also, the word of "Theory" is a well-established concept in science that has its own definition. In general, a "theory" provides a framework for justification and prediction of physical/social observations. I am thinking of newton's theory of gravity. It has been used for prediction and justification of many physical observation. However, I am thinking how can we call "control" a theory in this framework. Again, thank you for collaborating in this discussion.
Control Theory offers a description of certain phenomena in Nature, especially those that might be affected by feedback in a system. To do that, it makes use of mathematical concepts related to dynamical systems and the like. In that sense, it actually offer predictions, which in this case are normally obtained by the application of established theoretical results (from the mathematical study of dynamical systems) or computer simulations. Thus, I don't see why it might not be called a theory since it tries to explain some phenomena, but of course it is still subjected to full development. The theory of gravitation that you mention was thought to be "the complete truth" about the phenomenon for more than 200 years, until Einstein "expanded" it (with the theory of relativity - the general version of 1915, of course) to work in cases that Newton did not consider. Even in this case, the theory of relativity is still considered a theory.
PS: please do not use the single word "control" when you refer to Control Theory.. it is confusing.
Best regards.
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