Forbidden Knowledge: And Other Essays on the Philosophy of Cognition

165 Pages·1987·3.674 MB·English

by  Nicholas Rescher (auth.)

FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE
EPISTEME
A SERIES IN THE FOUNDATIONAL,
METHODOLOGICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL,
SOCIOLOGICAL, AND POLITICAL ASPECTS
OF THE SCIENCES, PURE AND APPLIED
Editor: MARIO BUNGE
Foundations and Philosophy of Science Unit, McGill University
Advisory Editorial Board:
RUTHERFORD ARIS, Chemistry, University of Minnesota
HUBERT M. BLALOCK, Sociology, University of Washington
GEORGE BUGLIARELLO, Engineering, Polytechnic Institute of New York
NOAM CHOMSKY, Linguistics, MIT
KARL W. DEUTSCH, Political science, Harvard University
BRUNO FRITSCH, Economics, E. T.H. Zurich
ERWIN HIEBERT, History of science, Harvard University
ARISTID LlNDENMAY ER, Biology, University of Utrecht
JOHN MYHILL, Mathematics, SUNY at Buffalo
JOHN MAYNARD SMITH, Biology, University of Sussex
RAIMO TUOMELA, Philosophy, University of Helsinki
VOLUME 13
NICHOLAS RESCHER
University of Pittsburgh
FORBIDDEN
KNOWLEDGE
and Other Essays on the Philosophy of Cognition
D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY
A MEMBER OF THE KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP
DORDRECHT / BOSTON / LANCASTER / TOKYO
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rescher, Nicholas
Forbidden knowledge and other essays on the
philosophy of cognition.
(Episteme; v. 13)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Knowledge, Theory of. I. Title. II. Series:
Episteme (D. Reidel); v. 13.
BD161.R48 1987 121 87-16420
ISBN-J3: 978-94-010-8178-8 e-ISBN-J3: 978-94-009-3771-0
DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-3771-0
Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company,
P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, Holland.
Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada
by Kluwer Academic Publishers,
101 Philip Drive, Norwell, MA 02061, U.S.A.
In all other countries, sold and distributed
by Kluwer Academic Publishers Group,
P.O. Box 322,3300 AH Dordrecht, Holland.
All Rights Reserved
© 1987 by D. Reidel Publishing Company
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1987
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner
For Kurt Baier
in cordial friendship
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE xi
INTRODUCTION xiii
ONE / FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE: MORAL LIMITS OF SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH 1
1. A Range of Positions 1
2. Regulation vs. Laissez Faire 2
3. Moral Limits Pertain to Different Aspects of
Knowledge 3
4. Can Knowledge as Such be Morally
Inappropriate? 8
5. Knowledge is Only One Good among Others 10
6. The Enforcement of Morals 11
7. Coda 15
TWO / TRUTH AS IDEAL COHERENCE 17
1. The 'Continuity Condition' Relating a Criterion to
the Definition of Truth 17
2. Truth as Ideal Coherence 19
3. Coherentism and Truth as Adequation 23
4. Postscript: The Gap Between the Real and the
Ideal 25
THREE / RATIONALITY AND CONSISTENCY 28
1. Consistency: Initial Requisite or Ultimate Ideal? 28
2. Linearly Inferential vs. Dialectically Cyclic
Reasoning 28
3. Ampliative vs. Reductive Reasoning 33
4. Two Very Different Sorts of Acceptability:
Qualified vs. Outright Belief 34
5. Different Attitudes Towards Consistency 37
6. The Place of Dialectics in the Human Sciences 40
7. Must Inconsistency-Tolerance Be Motivated
Epistemically? 41
8. Consistency as a Cognitive Ideal 42
vii
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOUR / AN END TO SCIENCE? 44
1. Is Scientific Discovery an Inherently Bounded
'Venture? 44
2. Nature Might Exhibit an Unending Complexity of
Physical Constitution 45
3. Nature Might Exhibit an Unending Complexity of
Lawful Comportment 46
4. The Phenomena of Nature Might Be Unendingly
Diverse 48
5. The Basis for an Unending Prospect of Scientific
Discovery Might Lie Wholly in the Character of
Our Inquiry Processes 52
6. The Regulative Rationale for Supposing the
Cognitive Inexhaustibility of Nature 56
FIVE / ON ruE PROBABILISTIC BEARING OF TESTIMONY 58
1. Introduction 58
2. The Reliability of Sources 58
3. The Knowledgeability of Sources 62
4. Some 'Variations 63
5. A Survey of Probative 'Virtues 67
6. The Taxicab Problem 70
7. Hume and Laplace on Human Testimony 73
8. Laplace on Testimonial Chains 75
n
9. The Moral of the Story
SIX / ruE LIMITS OF PROBABILISTIC EPISTEMOLOGY 78
1. The Probabilist Program 78
2. Probability Is Not Enough 79
SEVEN / ruE ruREEFOLD WAY 83
1. The Three Levels 83
2. Some Examples 84
3. Man as a Creature of the Threefold Way 87
4. The Question of Legitimacy: The Utility of the
Ideal 89
EIGHT / NUMBER IDOLATRY AND FALLACIES OF QUANTIFICATION 93
TABLE OF CONTENTS IX
NINE / LIFE'S SEASONS: THE CONCEPTUAL PHENOMENOLOGY OF
AGE-PERIODlZATlON 100
1. The General Idea of a Life Cycle 100
2. The Rationale of Human Age-Periodization Phase
Transitions 103
3. The Diversity of Age 104
4. The Conventionality of Phase Transition 107
5. Thought Experiments 109
6. The Upshot 111
7. Broader Vistas 111
TEN / PHILOSOPHICAL TAXONOMY AS A PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUE 113
1. The Shape of Philosophy: Some Ancient Views 113
2. The Middle Ages and Early Modern Times 116
3. A Later Picture 120
4. Taxonomic Dynamics 121
5. The Post-Kantian Transformation 122
6. Taxonomic Proliferation 124
7. The Contemporary Situation 125
8. The Problem of Progress 129
9. The Dialectic of the Individual and the
Community 131
10. Conclusion 133
ELEVEN / IS PHILOSOPHY A GUIDE TO LIFE? 135
1. Philosophy: The Problematic Guide 135
2. The Problem of 'Applied Philosophy': Only One's
Own Philosophy Can Provide Guidance 137
3. What Philosophy Per Se Can Contribute 139
4. Some Examples of 'Applied Philosophy' in the
Public Domain 139
5. The Limited Utility of Methodological
Applications 141
6. A Danger of 'Applied Philosophy' 143
NOTES 145
BIBLIOGRAPHY 151
INDEX OF NAMES 153
PREFACE
This volume collects together eleven essays in epistemology, written
during the past three years. They are mostly unpublished, just four of
them having appeared previously (numbers two, three, four and
eleven). Detailed acknowledgement of prior publication is made in the
notes to the relevant chapters. I am indebted to the editors of the
several publications involved for their kind permission to use this
material. And I am particularly grateful to my friend, Professor Mario
Bunge, for his interest in my work and for his willingness to include this
sample of it in his 'Episteme' series.
NICHOLAS RESCHER
Pittsburgh, PA
December, 1986
xi
INTRODUCTION
The philosophy of knowledge covers a vast and enormously diversified
terrain. Within this broad area, the essays that comprise the present
book deal specifically with the following issues:
1. The moral dimension of inquiry - in particular, scientific inquiry
into the ways of the world (Chapter 1)
2. The epistemic status of such cognitive 'values' of inquiry as
- coherence (Chapter 2)
- consistency (Chapter 3)
- completeness (Chapter 4)
3. The cognitive bearing of probabilistic considerations (Chapters 5
and 6)
4. The epistemic status of certain ideal desiderata of cognition, such
as
- totality (Chapter 7)
- precision (Chapter 8)
- exactness (Chapter 9)
5. The methodology and the character of specifically philosophical
inquiry (Chapters 10-11)
The essays try to combine a hard-headed concern for the substance of
rigorous inquiry with a traditionally humanistic concern for a value
guided appreciation of its broader implications. Although topically
diversified, all of these studies involve the common objective of seeking
to illustrate how the aims or goals of inquiry exert an effect on its
products.
In an era when fashion leads towards a monolithic 'analysis of knowl
edge' that regiments this conception into the format of a computational
formalism, the book seeks to convey the idea that knowledge is some
thing far more diversified, variegated, and complex than is generally
acknowledged.
A volume of essays has a point of advantage over a scholarly book as
such - an advantage that can be of use to author and reader alike. Since
its substantive unity is less rigid, it can give a somewhat freer play to
xiii