Text
Contemporary debates in philosophy of science
Teachers: Has this ever happened to you? You are teaching a philosophy class that covers a number of different topics. You want to spend a week or so on, let?s say, scientific realism. Naturally, you want to provide the students with some accessible readings on the subject. Moreover, you want to choose readings from both realists and anti-realists, partly so that the students will see both sides of the issue, and partly to give the students a glimpse of philosophers engaging in debate with one another. What you end up with, however, are readings that end up talking past one another: no two authors agree on what scientific realism is, so the realists are defending views that the anti-realists are not attacking. The students come away confused, and without any sense of the constructive value of debate. Students: Has this ever happened to you? You are taking a philosophy class that covers a number of different topics. One of the topics covered is, let?s say, scientific realism. There are assigned readings on the topic: they are challenging, but with some effort on your part and some help from your instructor, you get a pretty good sense of what each author is saying. The problem is that these authors seem to be talking about different things. Your professor says that they are debating with one another, but you just don?t see it in the texts. Researchers: Has this ever happened to you? You want to get a sense of what is currently going on in some area of philosophy ? let?s say, the philosophy of science. So, naturally enough, you look for a good anthology of papers on the subject. The anthology you pick up is divided into a number of sections, each devoted to a specific topic ? scientific realism, for example. While each article makes some interesting points, you can?t quite see how they fit together. No two articles seem to be addressing quite the same question, so it?s just not clear what people are arguing about. Whichever category you fall under, I bet this has happened to you. If so, the Blackwell Contemporary Debates in Philosophy series is just the thing for you. This volume is one of the first in this new series; others will have a similar format. The contributors to this volume address eight specific yes?no questions in the philosophy of science. For each question, there are two chapters: one arguing that the answer is ?yes,? the other that the answer is ?no.? These are original contributions, each one specifically written to defend an answer to a specific question. There is no room (or at any rate, as little room as there can possibly be) for misunderstanding or evading the crucial issue. A number of different and conflicting desiderata went into the selection of the questions and the authors. There were, however, two nonnegotiable criteria. (Well, three if you count willingness to contribute!) The first was that each author had to be a recognized expert in the field about which she or he was writing. Some of the authors have long and distinguished careers; others are considered to be up-andcoming young stars; all are unimpeachable authorities. The second nonnegotiable criterion was that the paired authors agree on the exact wording of the question about which they were to disagree. Beyond this, I balanced a number different criteria: the authors should not merely be experts, but also clear and engaging writers; the authors should be ones who have brought new and interesting ideas to the problem areas; the topics should not only be philosophically significant, but of intrinsic interest to the nonspecialist reader; the topics, collectively, should provide broad coverage of the philosophy of science. This last desideratum proved particularly difficult, since the volume was to contain essays on only eight topics, and each topic had to be constrained to a single question. In many cases, I was able to identify questions that could do double duty in order to provide broader coverage. The contributions of John Roberts and Harold Kincaid (chapters 7 and 8), for example, cover issues about the nature of laws, as well as important issues in the philosophy of the social sciences; the contributions by Peter Carruthers (chapter 15) and James Woodward and Fiona Cowie (chapter 16) cover topics in both the philosophy of biology and the philosophy of psychology; and so on. I made a conscious decision to focus the topics in core theoretical issues in the philosophy of science: confirmation, causation, the philosophies of specific sciences, and so on. There are many issues concerning the broader role of science in our society ? the ethics of scientific research, the social value of science, the role of social forces within science, the status of women and minorities in science, and so on ? that are fully deserving of the name ?philosophy of science,? yet receive no attention in this anthology. This decision reflects the fact that these issues are already highly visible to nonexperts, as well as the fact that there already exist many fine anthologies on these subjects. Indeed, at the time of this writing, Blackwell is slated to publish Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics, which will include a couple of paired essays centered on questions that fall broadly within the philosophy of science. By the time you read this, there will no doubt be others under way. Teachers who are interested in using this volume as the basis of a course in the philosophy of science are encouraged to check other volumes in this series for pairs of essays that may be used to supplement those in this volume. The introduction to this volume locates the 16 contributions within the broader context of the philosophy of science. It also provides a number of suggestions for readers who want to pursue topics that are not covered by the chapters in this volume. xii Preface For each question, I presented the two responses in the order in which it made more sense to read them. Thus, the first chapter of each part typically spends more time laying out the basic issues, while the second chapter typically spends more time criticizing the sorts of positions and arguments described in the first. In each case, however, both chapters do some of each of these things. In most cases, it turned out that it made sense to put the affirmative answer first. The exception is the pair of essays on laws in the social sciences (chapters 7 and 8). John Roberts? chapter pressing the case for ?no? presents a more traditional account of laws, and Harold Kincaid?s companion piece spends some time responding to the sorts of objections raised by Roberts (as well as others). Readers are, of course, free to read the chapters in any order they choose. A great many people helped with the preparation of this book. First and foremost, this volume would not exist without the work of the contributors ? this is really their book and not mine. Alan H?jek and James Woodward offered a number of helpful suggestions for the introduction. A great many philosophical colleagues offered advice and suggestions for topics and authors in the early stages of this project. At the risk of leaving someone out, they are Frank Arntzenius, Gordon Belot, Jeremy Butterfield, the late James Cushing, Arthur Fine, Richard Grandy, Alan H?jek, Carl Hoefer, Nicholas Huggett, Paul Humphreys, Philip Kitcher, Marc Lange, Helen Longino, David Malament, Laura Ruetsche, Merrilee Salmon, Brian Skyrms, Elliott Sober, Paul Teller, Bas van Fraassen, and an anonymous reviewer for Blackwell. Jeff Dean, Geoff Palmer, and Nirit Simon at Blackwell Publishing offered guidance throughout the process, and Barbara Estrada put in many long hours preparing the contributions. Finally, the love, patience, and indulgence of Ann Lindline enabled me to maintain my sanity even as deadlines loomed
Ketersediaan
| Call Number | Location | Available |
|---|---|---|
| 501 Con | PSB lt.dasar - Pascasarjana | 1 |
| Penerbit | Malden Blackwell., 2004 |
|---|---|
| Edisi | - |
| Subjek | Philosophy Science |
| ISBN/ISSN | - |
| Klasifikasi | - |
| Deskripsi Fisik | - |
| Info Detail Spesifik | - |
| Other Version/Related | Tidak tersedia versi lain |
| Lampiran Berkas | Tidak Ada Data |