Duhem
A physicist who took the issues involved seriously was Pierre Duhem, writing at the beginning of the twentieth century. He wrote an extended analysis of the approach he saw as characteristically British, in requiring field theories of theoretical physics to have a mechanical-physical interpretation. That was an accurate characterisation of what Dirac (himself British) would later argue against. The national characteristics specified by Duhem do not need to be taken too seriously, since he also claimed that the use of abstract algebra, namely quaternions, was also characteristically British (as opposed to French or German); as if the use of classical analysis methods alone was important one way or the other.
Duhem also wrote on saving the phenomena. In addition to the Copernican revolution debate of "saving the phenomena" (Greek: σῴζειν τὰ φαινόμενα, sozein ta phainomena) versus offering explanations that inspired Duhem was Thomas Aquinas, who wrote, regarding eccentrics and epicycles, that
Reason may be employed in two ways to establish a point: firstly, for the purpose of furnishing sufficient proof of some principle . Reason is employed in another way, not as furnishing a sufficient proof of a principle, but as confirming an already established principle, by showing the congruity of its results, as in astronomy the theory of eccentrics and epicycles is considered as established, because thereby the sensible appearances of the heavenly movements can be explained (possunt salvari apparentia sensibilia); not, however, as if this proof were sufficient, forasmuch as some other theory might explain them.
The idea that a physical interpretation in physics is not an ultimate condition has as descendant modern structural realism on science.
Read more about this topic: Scientific Formalism