Resisting Scientific Realism

Resisting Scientific Realism
Author: K. Brad Wray
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2018-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108415210

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Provides a spirited defence of anti-realism in philosophy of science. Shows the historical evidence and logical challenges facing scientific realism.

Kuhn's Intellectual Path

Kuhn's Intellectual Path
Author: K. Brad Wray
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2021-09-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1316512177

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Examines the influences on and impact of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

Scientific Realism

Scientific Realism
Author: Stathis Psillos
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2005-08-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134619820

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Scientific realism is the optimistic view that modern science is on the right track. This book argues that the history of science does not undermine this notion, suggesting it as the best philosophical account of science.

Interpreting Kuhn

Interpreting Kuhn
Author: K. Brad Wray
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2021-07-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1108498299

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"One might wonder if there is anything new to say about Thomas Kuhn and his views on science. Scholarship on Kuhn, though, has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. This is so for a number reasons"--

The Fight Against Doubt

The Fight Against Doubt
Author: Inmaculada de Melo-Martín
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2018-07-02
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0190869259

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The lack of public support for climate change policies and refusals to vaccinate children are just two alarming illustrations of the impacts of dissent about scientific claims. Dissent can lead to confusion, false beliefs, and widespread public doubt about highly justified scientific evidence. Even more dangerously, it has begun to corrode the very authority of scientific consensus and knowledge. Deployed aggressively and to political ends, some dissent can intimidate scientists, stymie research, and lead both the public and policymakers to oppose important public policies firmly rooted in science. To criticize dissent is, however, a fraught exercise. Skepticism and fearless debate are key to the scientific process, making it both vital and incredibly difficult to characterize and identify dissent that is problematic in its approach and consequences. Indeed, as de Melo-Martín and Intemann show, the criteria commonly proposed as means of identifying inappropriate dissent are flawed and the strategies generally recommended to tackle such dissent are not only ineffective but could even make the situation worse. The Fight Against Doubt proposes that progress on this front can best be achieved by enhancing the trustworthiness of the scientific community and by being more realistic about the limits of science when it comes to policymaking. It shows that a richer understanding of the context in which science operates is needed to disarm problematic dissent and those who deploy it. This, the authors argue, is the best way forward, rather than diagnosing the many instances of wrong-headed dissent.

Scientific Realism and the Rationality of Science

Scientific Realism and the Rationality of Science
Author: Professor Howard Sankey
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2012-10-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1409485811

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Scientific realism is the position that the aim of science is to advance on truth and increase knowledge about observable and unobservable aspects of the mind-independent world which we inhabit. This book articulates and defends that position. In presenting a clear formulation and addressing the major arguments for scientific realism Sankey appeals to philosophers beyond the community of, typically Anglo-American, analytic philosophers of science to appreciate and understand the doctrine. The book emphasizes the epistemological aspects of scientific realism and contains an original solution to the problem of induction that rests on an appeal to the principle of uniformity of nature.

The Relativity of Theory

The Relativity of Theory
Author: Moti Mizrahi
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2020-09-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030580474

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This book offers a close and rigorous examination of the arguments for and against scientific realism and introduces key positions in the scientific realism/antirealism debate, which is one of the central debates in contemporary philosophy of science. On the one hand, scientific realists argue that we have good reasons to believe that our best scientific theories are approximately true because, if they were not even approximately true, they would not be able to explain and predict natural phenomena with such impressive accuracy. On the other hand, antirealists argue that the success of science does not warrant belief in the approximate truth of our best scientific theories. This is because the history of science is a graveyard of theories that were once successful but were later discarded. The author eventually settles on a middle-ground position between scientific realism and antirealism called “relative realism”.

Theoretical Virtues in Science

Theoretical Virtues in Science
Author: Samuel Schindler
Publisher:
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2018-05-24
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1108422268

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In-depth discussion of the value of scientific theories, bringing together and advancing current important debates in realism.

Knowledge and Inquiry

Knowledge and Inquiry
Author: K. Brad Wray
Publisher: Broadview Press
Total Pages: 484
Release: 2002-05-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781551114132

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This anthology focuses on three areas in the theory of knowledge: epistemic justification; analyses of knowledge and scepticism; and recent developments in epistemology. Each of the three sections includes a brief introduction to the readings, a series of study questions, and a list of suggested readings. Section 1 deals with coherentism, foundationalism, reliabilism, and includes articles by Chisholm, BonJour, Audi, Goldman, and Fumerton. Section 2 deals with the analysis of knowledge and Gettier problems, and a variety of forms and responses to scepticism; it includes articles by Gettier, Conee, Feldman, Putnam, Nagel, and Stroud. Section 3 introduces the reader to recent developments in naturalized, feminist, and social epistemology, and includes articles by Quine, Almeder, Putnam, Anderson, Harding, Longino, Hardwig, Rorty, and Kitcher.

Kuhn's Evolutionary Social Epistemology

Kuhn's Evolutionary Social Epistemology
Author: K. Brad Wray
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2011-09-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1139503464

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Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) has been enduringly influential in philosophy of science, challenging many common presuppositions about the nature of science and the growth of scientific knowledge. However, philosophers have misunderstood Kuhn's view, treating him as a relativist or social constructionist. In this book, Brad Wray argues that Kuhn provides a useful framework for developing an epistemology of science that takes account of the constructive role that social factors play in scientific inquiry. He examines the core concepts of Structure and explains the main characteristics of both Kuhn's evolutionary epistemology and his social epistemology, relating Structure to Kuhn's developed view presented in his later writings. The discussion includes analyses of the Copernican revolution in astronomy and the plate tectonics revolution in geology. The book will be useful for scholars working in science studies, sociologists and historians of science as well as philosophers of science.