Science and Values: The Aims of Science and Their Role in Scientific Debate

165 Pages·1986·1.99 MB·English

by  Larry Laudan

SCIENCE AND VALUES
Pittsburgh Series in
Philosophy and History
of Science
Series Editors:
Adolf Gnunbaurn
Ian-y Laudan
Nicholas Wescher
Wesley C. Salmon
SCIENCE
AND
VALUES
The Aims ofscience and
Their Role lliz Scientfic Debate
--
Larry Laudan
University of Calqornia Press
Berkeley kos Angeles London
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Etd.
London, England
Copyright @ 1984 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Laudan, Larry.
Science and values.
(Pittsburgh series in philosophy and history of
science ; v. 11)
Bibliography: p. 141
Includes index.
1. Science- Philosophy. I. Title. 11. Series.
Q175.L295 1984 501 84-249
ISBN 0-520-105267-6
Print~ciln the United States of America
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to my favorite geologist - who never
forgot about hard rocks
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Preface
One Two Puzzles about Science: Reflections on Some
Crises in Philosophy and Sociology of Science
The Consensual View and the Puzzle of
Agreement
The "New Wave" Preoccupation with
Dissensus
Two The Hierarchical Structure of Scientific Debates
Factual Consensus Formation
Methodological Consensus Formation
Three Closing the Evaluative Circle: Resolving
Disagreements about Cognitive Values
The Covariance Fallacy
The Reticulated Model and the Mlechanics
of Goal Evaluation
The Reticulated Model of Scientific
Rationality
Four Dissecting the Holist Picture of Scientific
Change 6 7
vii
...
vlll Contents
Kuhn on the Units of Scientific Change 6 8
Kuhn's Critique of Methodology 8 7
Five A Reticulational Critique of Realist Axiology
and Methodology 103
Epilogue
References
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Attempting to recognize one's intellectual debts is always a precarious
business. The success of the enterprise rests on the monumentally im-
plausible assumption that one can consciously recognize at the time,
and is later in a position to recall, the multitude of ideas and argu-
ments that shaped one's approach to a topic. (Not for nothing is oral
history in disrepute!) There are several possible aides de mdmoire
which authors fall back on. One can record the names of one's teach-
ers, or the authors in one's library, or one's immediate colleagues.
My own preference in these matters is to localize my obligations
using a different criterion. My clear and obvious debt, at least as I see
it, is to those friends and colleagues who have read and commented on
all (or portions) of this essay. Their criticisms have saved me from some
egregious mistakes and their encouragement has sustained me through
periods when I was convinced that I had nothing fresh to say. It is their
names that belong here, for this essay reflects their (effortsj ust as much
as my own.
Accordingly, I want to thank all the following heartily for the role
they have played in putting this work together: Paul Anderson, Peter
Barker, Benjamin Bart, Henry Bauer, Cerd Buchclahl, Richard Buri-
an, Robert Butts, Richard Creath, Arthur Donovan, Gerald Doppelt,
Maurice Finocchiaro, Arthur Fine, Ron Giere, Clark Glymour, Adolf
Griinbaum, Gary Gutting, Carl Hempel, David Hull, Noretta Koertge,
Rachel Laudan, Jarrett Lepfin, Andrew Lugg, Ernan McMullin, Ilkka
Niiniluoto, Joseph Pitt, Nicholas Rescher, Alex Rosenberg, Eleanore