Rescuing Reason: A Critique of Anti-Rationalist Views of Science and Knowledge

569 Pages·2003·10.4 MB·English

by  Robert Nola (auth.)

Rescuing Reason
BOSTON STUDIES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Editors
ROBERT S. COHEN, Boston University
JURGEN RENN, Max-Planck-Institutefor the History ofScience
KOSTAS GAVROGLU, University ofAthens
EditorialAdvisoryBoard
THOMAS F.GLICK, Boston University
ADOLFGRUNBAUM, University ofPittsburgh
SYLVANS. SCHWEBER, Brandeis University
JOHNJ. STACHEL, Boston University
MARX W.WARTOFSKYt, (Editor 1960-1997)
VOLUME 230
RESCUING REASON
A Critique of Anti-Rationalist Views
of Science and Knowledge
by
ROBERT NOLA
The University of Auckland,
New Zealand
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4020-1043-9 ISBN 978-94-010-0289-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-010-0289-9
Cover of the paperback edition:
Painting by Charles F. Goldie and Louis John Steele: The arrival of the Maoris
in New Zealand used by permission of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki.
Printed on acid-free paper
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© 2003 Springer-Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Origina11y published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2003
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover Ist edition2003
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
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Dedication
To the memory a/myparents,
Jean Beatrice and Boie
TABLE OFCONTENTS
Acknowledgements xi
INTRODUCTION 1
PART I: KNOWLEDGE,SCIENCEANDTHE EPISTEMOLOGICAL
ENTERPRISE
SYNOPSISOFPART I 15
CHAPTER 1: THE CRITICALTRADITION AND SOME OF 19
ITSDISCONTENTS
1.1 OntheVery Ideaof aCriticalTradition 19
1.2 SolvingtheLegitimation Problem 29
1.3 SomeDethroners oftheCritical Tradition 35
1.4 KuhnasDethroner ofthe Critical Tradition? 49
1.5 The Anarchist Feyerabend asDethroner ofthe 62
Critical Tradition?
CHAPTER 2: THE PROBLEM OFKNOWLEDGE 75
2.1 Knowledge -Why Bother? The Problem of
Plato'sTether 76
2.2 Agrippa'sProblem forKnowledge asJustified
True Belief 83
2.3 Reliabilism andtheDefinition ofKnowledge 90
2.4 Some Social Aspects of Knowledge 102
CHAPTER 3: NATURALISM ANDNORMS OFREASON 117
ANDMETHOD
3.1 Quine's Naturalized Epistemology 118
3.2 Varieties ofNaturalism 124
3.3 SomeNorms ofScience andEpistemology 128
3.4 Naturalism andNorms ofReasoning and Method:
Mapping theTerrain 132
3.5 Naturalism andNormative Anti-Objectivism 140
3.6 Folk Scientific Rationality 147
3.7 Reconciling the NormativeWith the Natural:
Ramsey-LewisDefinition 156
3.8 The Supervenience oftheMethodologically
Normative onthe Non-Normative 162
Vlll TABLEOF CONTENTS
PART II:THE POVERTYOFTHE SOCIOLOGY OF SCIENTIFIC
KNOWLEDGE
SYNOPSISOFPARTII 175
CHAPTER4: SOME GERMAN CONNECTIONS: MARX AND
MANNHEIM 179
4.1 Marx and the Sociology ofScience and Scientific
Knowledge 181
4.2 Mannheim andthe Sociology ofScience and
Scientific Knowledge 192
4.3 Merton and Norms for theEthos ofScience 199
CHAPTER5: THE EDINBURGHCONNECTION I:
THE STRONGPROGRAMMEAND THE
SOCIAL CAUSES OFSCIENTIFICBELIEF 205
5.1 Interpreting theStrong Programme 205
5.2 Social and Non-Social Factors inBeliefCausation 211
5.3 The Causality Tenetand aSocial Cause Model of
ExplanationWithin the Strong Programme 216
5.4 The Causality Tenet and the Rational
Explanationof Scientific Beliefs byMethodo-
logical Principles of Science 222
5.5 Social and Political Interests as Causes ofBelief 231
5.6 Case Study I:Acausality and WeimarPhysicists 236
5.7 Case Study II:Bloor onthe Social Causes of
Boyle's Beliefs about Matter 242
5.8 Sociological Laws and the Causality Tenet 249
5.9 Causality, Causal Dependence,Explanation and a
Reformulation ofthe Causality Tenet 252
5.10 An Unnatural Naturalization 256
CHAPTER6: THE EDINBURGHCONNECTION II:
STRONGAND WRONG 261
6.1 Rival Models forthe Explanation of Scientific
Belief 261
6.2 The ImpartialityTenet 268
6.3 The Symmetry Tenet 274
6.4 The ReflexivityTenet 285
6.5 Relativismand the Strong Programme 289
TABLEOF CONTENTS ix
CHAPTER7: THE WITTGENSTEIN CONNECTION:
THE SOCIAL AND THE RATIONAL 297
7.1 Ordinary Inference as Individual Capacity or
Social Relation? A Refutation of the Causality
Tenet 298
7.2 The Strong Programme and the Causes of Belief
in AlternativeLogics 305
7.3 Isthe Hardness of the Logical Must Really the
Softness of aSocial Relation? 313
7.4 Wittgenstein onLogical Relations,Practices,
Codifications and Form of Life 319
7.5 The Scientismof the Strong Programme and
Wittgenstein'sAnti-Scientism inPhilosophy 326
7.6 Communitarianism, Meaning Finitismand the
Strong Programme 336
7.7 Natural Kinds and Meaning Finitism 347
7.8 'SociologyisaWay ofSending usto Sleep' 354
PART Ill: THE FRENCH CONNECTION: FOUCAULT
SYNOPSIS OFPART III 363
CHAPTER 8: AN ARCHAEOLOGICALDIGTHROUGH
FOUCAULT'S TEXTS 365
8.1 Foucaulton Knowledge 368
8.2 Foucault on Discourse and the Identity
Conditions for Statements and Discourses 376
8.3 Rules for the Formation of Concepts and Strategies 387
8.4 Rules for the Formation of Objects:the Case of
Madness 392
8.5 Realism and Nominalistic Anti-Realism about
Objects and Kinds 398
8.6 The ContextualistTheory of Meaning and
'Ersatz'Objects 405
8.7 The Individuation of Sentences and Discourses -
Once More 409
8.8 A Reflexive Paradox inFoucault's Theory of
Discourse 412
x TABLE OFCONTENTS
CHAPTER 9: GENEALOGY, POWERAND KNOWLEDGE 417
9.1 The CauseofDiscourse Discontinuity 418
9.2 The Emergence ofPower as The Cause 419
9.3 Power 423
9.4 Power/Knowledge 431
9.5 Six Criticisms ofthePower/KnowledgeDoctrine 445
9.6 BriefCommentsonFoucault's Talk ofTruth 457
PART IV:THE GERMAN CONNECTION: NIETZSCHE
SYNOPSIS OFPART IV 463
CHAPTER 10:NIETZSCHE'S GENEALOGY OFBELIEFAND 465
MORALITY
10.1 The Metaphysical Conception ofthe "Willto
Power" 468
10.2 The "Will toPower" astheLeading Hypothesis
of anExplanatory and Reductive Programme 478
10.3 Nietzsche's Naturalism andOrdinary Objects 481
10.4 The Genealogy ofBelief inSubstantive Objects
andinLogic 485
10.5 The GenealogyofBeliefandTruth 497
10.6 The Genealogy ofBeliefinTruth and the
Ascetic Ideal 503
10.7 The GenealogyofMorals: Psychosocial
History asFiction orReality? 516
10.8 Addendum onNietzsche's Genealogical Project 530
CHAPTER 11: EPILOGUE 539
References 543
NameIndex 555
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Some ofthis book was begun while I was a Visiting Fellow at the Centerfor
the Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, during 1995. I wish to
acknowledge the stimulating research environment provided by the Center.
The completion of the book wasassisted by aMarsden Fund Grant.
The following offered valuable comments on parts ofthe book, often, but
not always, heeded: Peter Anstey, Jan Crosthwaite, Glirol Irzik, Fred Kroon
and Bob Solomon. I am indebted to the publisher's anonymous reviewer.
Some of this book derives from earlier papers I have published on its
various subjects. Sometimes portions of them reappear here as they were
originally published. But more often than not they have been totally revised
for the book;in some cases their different revised sections have been split up
and used in different places in the book. I would like to thank the publishers
for their kind permission to use previously published material inthis way.
The original sources are as follows.
Reprinted by permission of Taylorand Francis,Oslo,Norway:
'The Strong Programme for the Sociology of Science, Reflexivity and
Relativism'; Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy, vol. 33,
1990,pp.273-96;
'Postmodemism, a French Cultural Chemobyl: Foucault on
Power/Knowledge'; Inquiry:An Interdisciplinary Journal ofPhilosophy, vol.
37, 1994.pp. 3-43.
Reprinted by permission of Frank Cass Publishers,London:
'Knowledge, Discourse, Power and Genealogy in Foucault', Critical Review
ofInternational Social and Political Philosophy, 1#2, 1998 pp. 109-54. This
also appeared in R. Nola (ed.) Foucault (London, Frank Cass 1988).
Reprinted by permission of Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht,
The Netherlands:
'Nietzsche's Naturalism:Science and Belief, in Babette Babich and Robert S.
Cohen (eds.) Nietzsche and the Sciences l/: Nietzsche. Epistemology, and
Philosophy ofScience, (Dordrecht, Kluwer, 1999); pp.91-100;
'On the Possibility of a Scientific Theory of Scientific Method', Science &
Education 8, 1999, pp. 427-39;
'Saving Kuhn from the Sociologists of Science', Science & Education 9, 2000
pp. 77-90;
(with H. Sankey) 'ASelectiveSurvey of Theories of Scientific Method', in R.
Nola and H. Sankey (eds.) After Popper. Kuhn and Feyerabend; Recent
Issues in Theories ofScientificMethod,(Dordrecht,Kluwer, 2000), pp. 1-65.