ENGLISH

The Advancement of Science: Science without Legend, Objectivity without Illusions

By Philip Kitcher

Book information

Year
1993
ISBN
9780195046281, 9780195096538, 9781423765295, 0195046285, 0195096533
LCC
Q175 .K533 1993
Open Library ID
OL1717026M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
27 MB (28131555 bytes)
Pages
432\432
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

During the last three decades, reflections on the growth of scientific knowledge have inspired historians, sociologists, and some philosophers to contend that scientific objectivity is a myth. In this book, Kitcher attempts to resurrect the notions of objectivity and progress in science by identifying both the limitations of idealized treatments of growth of knowledge and the overreactions to philosophical idealizations. Recognizing that science is done not by logically omniscient subjects working in isolation, but by people with a variety of personal and social interests, who cooperate and compete with one another, he argues that, nonetheless, we may conceive the growth of science as a process in which both our vision of nature and our ways of learning more about nature improve. Offering a detailed picture of the advancement of science, he sets a new agenda for the philosophy of science and for other "science studies" disciplines.

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