I want to analyse some thermodynamical theories, i.e. theories that are concerned with temperature, heat, pressure, volume, states, systems etc. etc.
These theories obviously differ in many ways. Some differ in their ontologies (if one may speak of an ontology of a theory?) putting engines, systems and environment at their foundation or putting state functions and axioms at their foundations etc. Some develop their concepts through a sequence of consecutive laws, each giving rise to a new concept required in the formulation of the next.
Now I am wondering what is the discipline that is concerned with the structure of theories. I want to complete my sentence, saying that 'I conduct a .... analysis of the theories of thermodynamics'.
So far a few ones came to mind that are somehow not satisfactory:
- epistemological (concerning the epistemology of)
- nomological (concerning the laws of)
- logological (concerning the science of)
- structural (concerning the structure of)
I think that broadly speaking such an endeavour might fall into the branch of epistemology. Such an analysis, however, is not really an epistemological one, because it's not concerned with knowledge or acquisition thereof in the narrow sense, but with the structure of a theory. So I feel tempted to rule out number 1. I also feel tempted to rule out 'nomological analysis', since laws are just one aspect of the structure of a theory. I picked up the word logological somewhere, but don't know whether it fits here. The word 'structural' seems to be too vague to capture the type of analysis I envision. I also do not want to confound the type of analysis with the method of analysis.