A critic´s view of some recent proposed applications of Catastrophe theory

Recent attempts to defend Catastrophe Theory from the harsh criticism to which it has been subjected have emphasized the idea that the applicability of the theory should not be judged on the basis of the original claims made by its own proponents. The early claim that CT was a revolutionary breakthrough that would, for the first time in history, enable us to deal with discontinuity in a mathematical way, and that the main impact of this revolution was going to be felt in the social sciences and in biology, is now being replaced by the much more modest idea that CT should be judged on the basis of recent proposed applications to physics. This paper presents a critic´s assessment of this new type of application.