Progress and Rationality in Science

423 Pages·1978·13.83 MB·English

by  Gerard Radnitzky

BOSTON STUDIES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
VOLUME LVIII
PROGRESS AND RATIONALITY IN SCIENCE
SYNTHESE LIBRARY
STUDIES IN EPISTEMOLOGY,
LOGIC, METHODOLOGY, AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Managing Editor:
JAAKKO HINTIKKA, Academy of Finland and Stanford University
Editors:
ROBERT S. COHEN, Boston University
DON ALD DAVIDSON, University of Chicago
GABRIEL NUCHELMANS, University of Leyden
WESLEY C. SALMON, University of Arizona
VOLUME 125
BOSTON STUDIES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
EDITED BY ROBERT S. COHEN AND MARX W. WARTOFSKY
VOLUME LVIII
PROGRESS AND
RATION ALITY IN
SCIENCE
Edited by
GERARD RADNITZKY AND GUNNAR ANDERSSON
Universitiit Trier
D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY
DORDRECHT: HOLLAND! BOSTON: U.S.A.! LONDON: ENGLAND
Ubrary of Congress Cataloging in Publkation Data
Main entry under title:
Progress and rationality in science.
(Boston studies in the philosophy of science; v. 58)
Bibliography: p.
Includes indexes.
1. Science-Philosophy. I. Radnitzky, Gerard.
II. Andersson, Gunnar. III. Series.
Q174.B67 vol. 58 [QI75] 501's [501] 78-14305
ISBN-l3: 978-90-277-0922-6 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-9866-7
DOl: 10.1 007/978-94-009-9866-7
Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company,
P.O. Box 17, Dordrecht, Holland
Sold and distributed in the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico
by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Inc.
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Mass. 02043, U.S.A.
All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 1978 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
and copyright holders as specified on the appropriate pages within
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1978
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 informational storage and
retrieval system. without written permission from the copyright owner
EDITORIA L NOTE
The extraordinary Kronberg conference of 1975 brought the international
discussion of the creative and critical work of the philosophers at LSE into
sharp focus. We are pleased to bring the edited proceedings to public
attention in this volume of papers that have been carefully revised in the
light of the Kronberg conversations. Gratitude is due to Gerard Radnitzky
and Gunnar Andersson for their efforts in organizing the conference, to
Gerd Brand and his associates for their intellectual and fmancial support,
and especially to our friends and colleagues at LSE for their good humor and
incisive behavior under friendly fire.
Boston, October 1978 R.S.C.
M.W.W.
TAB LE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE ix
INTRODUCTION
GERARD RADNITZKY and GUNNAR ANDERSSON f Objective
Criteria of Scientific Progress? Inductivism, Falsificationism,
and Relativism 3
PART I: THE LSE POSITION
JOHN WATKINS f The Popperian Approach to Scientific
Knowledge 23
JOHN WORRALL f The Ways in Which the Methodology of
Scientific Research Programmes Improves on Popper's
Methodology 45
EUE ZAHAR f 'Crucial' Experiments: A Case Study 71
PETER URBACH f The Objective Promise of a Research
Programme 99
PART II: REFLECTIONS ON THE LSE POSITION
ADOLF GRUNBAUM f Popper vs Inductivism 117
PAUL FEYERABEND f In Defence of Aristotle: Comments on
the Condition of Content Increase 143
ALAN MUSGRAVE I Evidential Support, Falsification,
Heuristics, and Anarchism 181
HANS ALBERT f Science and the Search for Truth 203
ERNAN MCMULLIN I Philosophy of Science and Its Rational
Reconstructions 221
NORETTA KOERTGE f Towards a New Theory of Scientific
Inquiry 253
KURT HUBNER f Some Critical Comments on Current
Popperianism on the Basis of a Theory of System Sets 279
GUNNAR ANDERSSON f The Problem of Verisimilitude 291
HEINZ POST f Objectivism vs Sociologism 311
viii T ABLE OF CONTENTS
PART III: THE LSE REPLY
JOHN WORRALL I Research Programmes, Empirical Support,
and the Duhem Problem: Replies to Criticism 321
JOHN WATKINS I Corroboration and the Problem of Content-
Comparison 339
UNIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR PARTS I AND III 379
PART IV: TWO BRIEF REJOINDERS
PAUL FEYERABEND I The Gong Show - Popperian Style 387
KURT HUBNER I Reply to Watkins 393
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 397
AUTHOR INDEX 401
407
SUBJECT INDEX
PREFACE
This collection of essays has evolved through the co-operative efforts,
which began in the fall of 1974, of the participants in a workshop
sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. The idea of holding one
or more small colloquia devoted to the topics of rational choice in
science and scientific progress originated in a conversation in the
summer of 1973 between one of the editors (GR) and the late Imre
Lakatos. Unfortunately Lakatos himself was never able to see this
project through, but his thought-provoking methodology of scientific
research programmes was ably expounded and defended by his
successors. Indeed, this volume continues and deepens the debate
inaugurated in Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (edited by
Imre Lakatos and Alan Musgrave), a book which grew out of a
conference held in 1965. That debate has continued during the years
that have passed since that conference. The group of discussions
about the place of rationality in science which have been held
between those who emphasize the history of science (with
Feyerabend and Kuhn as the most prominent exponents) and the
critical rationalists (Popper and his followers), with Imre Lakatos
defending a middle ground, these discussions were seen by almost all
commentators as the most important event in the philosophy of
science in the last decade. This problem area constituted the central
theme of our Thyssen workshop.
The workshop operated in the following manner. A group of
philosophers of science from the London School of Economics and
Political Science, guided by John W. N. Watkins, prepared a position
paper treating the central issues of the possibility of objective criteria
for scientific progress, the ways of assessing a theory's cognitive
merit and the status of such criteria. John W. N. Watkins was asked
to present the basic tenets of falsificationism, so that his essay could
be used for introducing students to the problems in this area of
contemporary philosophy of science. J. Worrall, P. Urbach and E.
Zahar assumed the task of presenting Lakatos's methodology of
scientific research programmes. Thus in the first part of the book the
question arises of how to evaluate the comparative achievements of
these two methodologies. In early 1975 the LSE-position paper was
ix
G. Radnitzky and G. Andersson (eds.J, Progress and Rationality in Science, ix-x.
All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 1978 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland.
x PREFACE
distributed to the workshop's invited participants. They prepared
critical commentary and often presented alternative positions. The
workshop group held a plenary conference, organized by G. Rad
nitzky and G. Andersson, at the Schlosshotel Kronberg near Frank
furt, July 6-12, 1975. The participants then revised their contributions
in the light of the critical discussion from the conference, sometimes
making minor adjustments and sometimes virtually rewriting their
essays. Most of the revisions were finished by 1977.
Next came the difficult task of selecting the papers to be published
together as conference proceedings. We were often forced to exclude
outstanding papers, for example because they did not bear directly on
the LSE-position paper or because they were of a highly technical
nature. The selected papers, chosen strictly according to the criterion
of thematic unity, yielded two volumes. The first of these, the present
book, poses the question of the objective criteria for scientific pro
gress as its central concern. The second volume, which is being
published under the title The Structure and Development of Science
by D. Reidel Publ. Co., Dordrecht, deals with the philosophical
presuppositions, the limits and the implications of scientific theorizing.
This volume opens with the LSE-position paper, and then follows
the section of critical commentary and proposals of alternatives. Next
come replies by J. W. N. Watkins and J. Worrall, as well as short
rejoinders by P. Feyerabend and by K. Hubner. This structuring has
made it seem most advantageous to pool the references for the
LSE-position paper and the LSE-reply, and to place this unified
bibliography at the end of the LSE-reply. The other papers all have
separate references.
The editors acknowledge with gratitude the efforts and kind co
operation of all participants involved. Our thanks go above all to
Prof. Dr. Gerd Brand, Director of the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, who not
only made the entire project possible through generous support but
also gave us the benefit of his advice. Without him neither of the two
volumes would ever have seen the light of day. Our thanks also go to
Dipl. Ok. Klaus Pahler for compiling the book's subject index, and to
Sieglinde Kordel for compiling the book's author index, to Barbara
Hill for editorial assistance and to Dorothea Hill for struggling through a
heavy load of secretarial responsibilities.
Trier, May 1978 THE EDITORS
INTRODUCTION