Progress and Rationality in Science PDF
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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. Lincoln Building, 160 Old Derby Street, Hingham, 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
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