Scientific Controversies: A Socio-Historical Perspective on the Advancement of Science

302 Pages·2015·3.85 MB·English

by  Dominique Raynaud

Scientific
Controversies
Scientific
Controversies
A Socio-Historical Perspective
on the Advancement of Science
Dominique Raynaud
With a preface by Mario Bunge
Transaction Publishers
New Brunswick (U.S.A.) and London (U.K.)
Copyright © 2015 by Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
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This book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National
Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2014024490
ISBN: 978-1-4128-5571-6
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Raynaud, Dominique.
[Sociologie des controverses scientifiques. English]
Scientific controversies / Dominique Raynaud; translated from the French by
Lisa C. Chien.
pages cm
In English.
Originally published in French: Sociologie des controverses scientifiques
(Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003).
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4128-5571-6
1. Science--Social aspects. 2. Science--Philosophy. I. Chien, Lisa C.,
translator. II. Title.
Q175.5.R3813 2015
501--dc23
2014024490
Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Foreword
Preface
Introduction: Controversies at the Crossroads of two Specialties
1 The Sociology of Science
2 The Sociology of Conflict
3 Elements for a Classification
1 The Object
2 Polarity
3 Extent
4 Intensity
5 Duration
6 Forum
7 Recognition
8 Settlement
1 Relativism and Rationalism: A Metacontroversy
1 The Guiding Notions in the Debate
1 The Relativist Approach
2 The Rationalist Approach
2 The Debate within the Sociology of the Sciences
1 The Relativist Arguments
2 The Rationalist Arguments
3 Relativists versus Rationalists: The Place of Controversies
2 The Controversy between Pasteur and Pouchet: An Essay on the Principle
of Accumulated Asymmetries
1 A Chronicle of the Controversy
2 An Inventory of Asymmetries
1 Ambiguous Asymmetries
1 Parisian versus provincial
2 Corresponding member versus full member of the french
academy of sciences
3 Close versus distant ties with the emperor
4 Researchers acting in good or bad faith
2 Hidden Asymmetries
1' Professional versus dilettante
2' Well-established researcher versus young aspiring researcher
3' Prolific versus modestly productive researcher
4' Scientific style: Demonstration versus illustration
5' The skeptical versus the committed attitude
6' Upstanding researcher versus dishonest counterfeiter
3 The Social Conditioning of Science
1 Pasteur and Pouchet
2 The family of the Heterogenists
3 Theology and Spontaneous Generation
4 Conclusions
3 The Vitalism-Organicism Controversy between Paris and Montpellier: An
Essay on the Social Determination of Knowledge
1 A Chronicle of the Controversy
2 The Prestige of the School of Montpellier
1 Student Enrollment
2 Access to Knowledge
3 Sociohistorical Analysis
1 Internal Factors
1 The interpretation of the clinical signs
2 The methods
3 Doctrine
2 External Factors
1 Scientific productivity
2 The philosophical presuppositions
3 The institutional framework
4 Professional interests
5 Political values and institutional affiliations
4 Conclusions
1 Productivity and Scientific Content
2 The Failure of the Notion of Determination
4 Intromission versus Extramission in Oxford:
1 Extramission versus Intromission
1 The Thesis of Extramission
1 The existence of phosphenes
2 The selectivity of the eye
3 The spherical form of the eye
4 The phosphorescence of the eye of the feline
5 The corruption of mirrors
6 The recessing of the eye
2 The Thesis of Intromission
1' The absence of night vision in man
2' The pain caused by bright light
3' The absence of instantaneous propagation of light
4' The impossibility of immensely long visual rays
2 The Arguments Presented by the Three Oxonians
1 The Position of Grosseteste
2 The Position of Bacon
3 The Position of Pecham
3 Sociohistorical Analysis
1 The Medieval Norms of Rationality
2 The Authority of Saint Augustine
3 Questions of Authority
4 A Rational Choice?
4 Conclusions
5 Al-Samarqandī's Native Theory of Controversies:
1 Science, Politics, and Negotiation
2 Samarqandī's Theory of the Scholarly Dispute
1 Samarqandī's Interest in the Nature and Resolution of
Controversies
2 Samarqandī's Juridical Model
3 Two Antinomic Models
1 The Order of the Debate
2 The Weapons of the Disputant
3 The Settlement of Controversies
4 Conclusions
1 Samarqandī's Internal Epistemology
2 Samarqandī's Indifference to the Negotiation of Truth
3 Samarqandī's Juridical Model
4 A Contribution to the Analysis of the Settlement of Controversies
6 The SSK in the Name of Prestigious Ancestors:
1 Pierre Duhem
1 Epistemic Holism
First argument
Second argument
2 Underdetermination of Theory
First argument
Second argument
2 Willard Quine
1 Epistemic Holism
First argument
Second argument
Third argument
2 Underdetermination of Theory
First argument
Second argument
Third argument
3 Ludwig Wittgenstein
1 The Conventional Nature of Knowledge
2 The Language-Games
First argument
Second argument
Third argument
4 Conclusions
Conclusion: Toward an Epistemological Incrementalism
1 Sociological Conclusion
1 Interests and Values
1 Why should values be introduced into a model of
controversies?
2 In what way do scientific controversies differ from other forms
of conflict?
2 Cognitive Interests and Values
2 Epistemological Conclusions
1 The Falsificationist Thesis
2 Falsificationism versus Verificationism?
Case 1 The faulty logical framework does not
Case 2 The faulty logical framework does ruin the conclusion
3 Toward Incrementalism
Appendix 1: The Works published by Pasteur and Pouchet
Appendix 2: The Primary Archives on the Pasteur-Pouchet Debate
Appendix 3: Excerpts from Pouchet's correspondence
Appendix 4: The Works published by the supporters of vitalism and
organicism
Bibliography
Index rerum
Index nominum