Philosophy of technology and engineering sciences PDF
Preview Philosophy of technology and engineering sciences
Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences Handbook of the Philosophy of Science General Editors Dov Gabbay Paul Thagard John Woods AMSTERDAM BOSTON HEIDELBERG LONDON NEW YORK OXFORD PARIS SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO SINGAPORE SYDNEY TOKYO North Holland is an imprint of Elsevier Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences Volume 9 Edited by Anthonie Meijers Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands AMSTERDAM BOSTON HEIDELBERG LONDON NEW YORK OXFORD PARIS SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO SINGAPORE SYDNEY TOKYO North Holland is an imprint of Elsevier North Holland is an imprint of Elsevier 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK Radarweg 29, PO Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, The Netherlands First edition 2009 Copyright © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone ( 44) (0) 1865 843830; fax ( 44) (0) 1865 853333; email: [email protected]. Alternatively you can submit your request online by visiting the Elsevier web site at http://elsevier.com/locate/permissions, and selecting Obtaining permission to use Elsevier material Notice No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. Because of rapid advances in the medical sciences, in particular, independent verification of diagnoses and drug dosages should be made British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN: 978-0-444-51667-1 For information on all North Holland publications visit our web site at elsevierdirect.com Printed and bound in The Netherlands 09 10 11 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 GENERAL PREFACE Dov Gabbay, Paul Thagard, and John Woods Whenever science operates at the cutting edge of what is known, it invariably runsintophilosophicalissuesaboutthenatureofknowledgeandreality. Scientific controversies raise such questions as the relation of theory and experiment, the nature of explanation, and the extent to which science can approximate to the truth. Within particular sciences, special concerns arise about what exists and how it can be known, for example in physics about the nature of space and time, and in psychology about the nature of consciousness. Hence the philosophy of science is an essential part of the scientific investigation of the world. In recent decades, philosophy of science has become an increasingly central part of philosophy in general. Although there are still philosophers who think that theories of knowledge and reality can be developed by pure reflection, much current philosophical work finds it necessary and valuable to take into account relevant scientific findings. For example, the philosophy of mind is now closely tied to empirical psychology, and political theory often intersects with economics. Thus philosophy of science provides a valuable bridge between philosophical and scientific inquiry. More and more, the philosophy of science concerns itself not just with general issuesaboutthenatureandvalidityofscience,butespeciallywithparticularissues that arise in specific sciences. Accordingly, we have organized this Handbook into many volumes reflecting the full range of current research in the philosophy of science. We invited volume editors who are fully involved in the specific sciences, and are delighted that they have solicited contributions by scientifically-informed philosophers and (in a few cases) philosophically-informed scientists. The result is the most comprehensive review ever provided of the philosophy of science. Here are the volumes in the Handbook: Philosophy of Science: Focal Issues, edited by Theo Kuipers. Philosophy of Physics, edited by Jeremy Butterfield and John Earman. PhilosophyofBiology,editedbyMohanMatthenandChristopherStephens. Philosophy of Mathematics, edited by Andrew Irvine. Philosophy of Logic, edited by Dale Jacquette. PhilosophyofChemistryandPharmacology,editedbyAndreaWoody,Robin Hendry and Paul Needham. vi DovGabbay,PaulThagard,andJohnWoods PhilosophyofStatistics,editedbyPrasantaS.BandyopadhyayandMalcolm Forster. Philosophy of Information, edited by Pieter Adriaans and Johan van Benthem. Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences, edited by Anthonie Meijers. Philosophy of Complex Systems, edited by Cliff Hooker. Philosophy of Ecology, edited by Bryson Brown, Kent Peacock and Kevin de Laplante. Philosophy of Psychology and Cognitive Science, edited by Paul Thagard. Philosophy of Economics, edited by Uskali Mäki. Philosophy of Linguistics, edited by Ruth Kempson, Tim Fernando and Nicholas Asher. Philosophy of Anthropology and Sociology, edited by Stephen Turner and Mark Risjord. Philosophy of Medicine, edited by Fred Gifford. Details about the contents and publishing schedule of the volumes can be found at http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/bookseriesdescription.cws home/BS HPHS/ description Asgeneraleditors,weareextremelygratefultothevolumeeditorsforarranging such a distinguished array of contributors and for managing their contributions. Production of these volumes has been a huge enterprise, and our warmest thanks go to Jane Spurr and Carol Woods for putting them together. Thanks also to Andy Deelen and Arjen Sevenster at Elsevier for their support and direction. CONTRIBUTORS Jennifer K. Alexander University of Minnesota, USA. [email protected] Gerhard Banse Institut fu¨r Technikfolgenabscha¨tzung und Systemanalyse, Germany. [email protected] Johannes M. Bauer Michigan State University, USA. [email protected] Henk van den Belt Wageningen University, The Netherlands [email protected] Mieke Boon University of Twente, The Netherlands. [email protected] Stefano Borgo University of Trento, Italy. [email protected] Philip Brey University of Twente, The Netherlands. [email protected] Adam Briggle University of Twente, The Netherlands. [email protected] Louis Bucciarelli Massachussets Institute of Technology, USA. [email protected] Richard Buchanan Case Western Reserve University, USA. [email protected] David F. Channell University of Texas at Dallas, USA. [email protected] viii Contributors Kees Dorst EindhovenUniversityofTechnology, TheNetherlands, andUniversityofTechnol- ogy, Sydney, Australia. [email protected];[email protected] Maarten Franssen Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. [email protected] Pawel Garbacz The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland [email protected] Armin Grunwald Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany. [email protected] Sven Ove Hansson Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. [email protected] Paulien M. Herder Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. [email protected] Wilfrid Hodges Queen Mary University of London, UK [email protected] Wybo Houkes Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. [email protected] Jesse Hughes Arlington, USA. [email protected] Christian Illies University of Bamberg, Germany. [email protected] Tarja Knuuttila University of Helsinki, Finland. [email protected] Peter Kroes Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. [email protected] Bruce MacLennan University of Tennessee, USA. [email protected] Anthonie Meijers Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. [email protected] Contributors ix Carl Mitcham Colorado School of Mines, USA. [email protected] Roland Mu¨ller Switzerland. [email protected] Nancy J. Nersessian Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. [email protected] Paul Nightingale SPRU, University of Sussex, UK. [email protected] Alfred Nordmann TU Darmstadt, Germany [email protected] Kees van Overveld Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. [email protected] Christopher Patton Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. [email protected] Joseph C. Pitt Virginia Tech, USA. [email protected] Beth Preston University of Georgia, USA. [email protected] Michael S. Pritchard Western Michigan University, USA. [email protected] Hans Radder VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands. [email protected] Nicholas Ray Cambridge University, UK. [email protected] Eric Schatzberg University of Wisconsin, USA. [email protected] Marcel Scheele The Netherlands. [email protected]
The list of books you might like
