Does anyone know if there is there a name for the idea that new concepts (such as negative numbers, complex numbers or type constructors in a type system) are only ever introduced into a preexisting "system" so that they can be eliminated later, after helping make some progress?
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This isn’t what you’re getting at, but is adjacent and perhaps interesting to you: false models / fake frameworks. https://dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/false-models-are-useful-because-theyre-false/ … https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wDP4ZWYLNj7MGXWiW/in-praise-of-fake-frameworks …
