Science Unlimited

Download or read book Science Unlimited? written by Maarten Boudry and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-01-12 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All too often in contemporary discourse, we hear about science overstepping its proper limits—about its brazenness, arrogance, and intellectual imperialism. The problem, critics say, is scientism: the privileging of science over all other ways of knowing. Science, they warn, cannot do or explain everything, no matter what some enthusiasts believe. In Science Unlimited?, noted philosophers of science Maarten Boudry and Massimo Pigliucci gather a diverse group of scientists, science communicators, and philosophers of science to explore the limits of science and this alleged threat of scientism. In this wide-ranging collection, contributors ask whether the term scientism in fact (or in belief) captures an interesting and important intellectual stance, and whether it is something that should alarm us. Is scientism a well-developed position about the superiority of science over all other modes of human inquiry? Or is it more a form of excessive confidence, an uncritical attitude of glowing admiration? What, if any, are its dangers? Are fears that science will marginalize the humanities and eradicate the human subject—that it will explain away emotion, free will, consciousness, and the mystery of existence—justified? Does science need to be reined in before it drives out all other disciplines and ways of knowing? Both rigorous and balanced, Science Unlimited? interrogates our use of a term that is now all but ubiquitous in a wide variety of contexts and debates. Bringing together scientists and philosophers, both friends and foes of scientism, it is a conversation long overdue.

Download or read book Resources in Education written by and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 1076 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book What is Scientific Knowledge? written by Kevin McCain and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What Is Scientific Knowledge? is a much-needed collection of introductory-level chapters on the epistemology of science. Renowned historians, philosophers, science educators, and cognitive scientists have authored 19 original contributions specifically for this volume. The chapters, accessible for students in both philosophy and the sciences, serve as helpful introductions to the primary debates surrounding scientific knowledge. First-year undergraduates can readily understand the variety of discussions in the volume, and yet advanced students and scholars will encounter chapters rich enough to engage their many interests. The variety and coverage in this volume make it the perfect choice for the primary text in courses on scientific knowledge. It can also be used as a supplemental book in classes in epistemology, philosophy of science, and other related areas. Key features: * an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the epistemology of science for a wide variety of students (both undergraduate- and graduate-level) and researchers * written by an international team of senior researchers and the most promising junior scholars * addresses several questions that students and lay people interested in science may already have, including questions about how scientific knowledge is gained, its nature, and the challenges it faces.

Download or read book The Scientific Attitude written by Lee McIntyre and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “intelligent treatise articulates why the pursuit of scientific truths, even if inevitably flawed . . . matters” in our post-truth world (Publishers Weekly). What separates science from other disciplines? An attitude that respects evidence and is willing to evolve as new evidence arises. Attacks on science have become commonplace. Claims that climate change isn’t settled science, that evolution is “only a theory,” and that scientists are conspiring to keep the truth about vaccines from the public are staples of some politicians’ rhetorical repertoire. Defenders of science often point to its discoveries (penicillin! relativity!) without explaining exactly why scientific claims are superior. In this book, Lee McIntyre argues that what distinguishes science from its rivals is what he calls “the scientific attitude”—caring about evidence and being willing to change theories on the basis of new evidence. The history of science is littered with theories that were scientific but turned out to be wrong; the scientific attitude reveals why even a failed theory can help us to understand what is special about science. In this book, McIntyre explores: • Historical cases that illustrate both scientific success and failure • The transformation of medicine from a practice based on hunches to a science based on evidence • Scientific fraud and ideology-driven denialists, pseudoscientists, and “skeptics” • How social science should embrace the scientific attitude Ultimately, McIntyre says, the grounding of science in evidence offers a uniquely powerful tool in the defense of science itself.

Download or read book Science At Century's End written by Martin Carrier and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2014-08-09 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To most laypersons and scientists, science and progress appear to go hand in hand, yet philosophers and historians of science have long questioned the inevitability of this pairing. As we take leave of a century acclaimed for scientific advances and progress, Science at Century's End, the eighth volume of the Pittsburgh-Konstanz Series in the Philosophy and History of Science, takes the reader to the heart of this important matter. Subtitled Philosophical Questions on the Progress and Limits of Science, this timely volume contains twenty penetrating essays by prominent philosophers and historians who explore and debate the limits of scientific inquiry and their presumed consequences for science in the 21st century.

Download or read book The History and Heritage of Scientific and Technological Information Systems written by W. Boyd Rayward and published by Information Today, Inc.. This book was released on 2004 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emphasis for the second conference on the history of information science systems was on scientific and technical information systems in the period from the Second World War up through the early 1990s. These proceedings present the papers of historians of science and technology, information scientists, and scientists in other fields on a wide range of topics: informatics in chemistry; biology and medicine; information developments in multinational, industrial, and military settings; biographical studies of pioneering individuals; and the transformation of information systems and formats in the twentieth century.

Download or read book New Approaches to Scientific Realism written by Wenceslao J. Gonzalez and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-08-24 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientific realism is at the core of the contemporary philosophical debate on science. This book analyzes new versions of scientific realism. It makes explicit the advantages of scientific realism over alternatives and antagonists, contributes to deciding which of the new approaches better meets the descriptive and the prescriptive criteria, and expands the philosophico-methodological field to take in new topics and disciplines.