Holism and the Understanding of Science
eBook - ePub

Holism and the Understanding of Science

Integrating the Analytical, Historical and Sociological

  1. 182 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Holism and the Understanding of Science

Integrating the Analytical, Historical and Sociological

About this book

This title was first published in 2000: This book addresses issues which are central in the philosophy of science, exploring a large and relevant literature. It should be of broad interest in the philosophy of science community." Professor Peter Lipton, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, UK. How can the complexities of understanding science be dealt with as a whole? Is philosophical realism still a defensible philosophical position? Exploring such fundamental questions, this book claims that science ought to be understood in terms of universal practices and that such an understanding supports an attractive version of scientific realism. Holism is attracting renewed scholarly attention but is still loosely used in a range of different contexts, from semantics to medicine. This book presents a detailed philosophical analysis of holism, concentrating on two complementary aspects of holism - cognitive and social - to investigate its relevance to science studies. Bridging the gap between analytical, historical and sociological accounts of science, Caruana draws together results from recent research by Davidson, Dummett, Quine, Wright and others, on Wittgenstein's later philosophy. Demonstrating that holism, both cognitive and social, is not only essential for a full understanding of science but also compatible with a particular version of scientific realism, this book presents important new perspectives for the philosophers of science and scholars of the history of science in particular. Louis Caruana is Assistant Lecturer in Philosophy of Science and Nature at the Gregorian University, Rome, Italy.

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Yes, you can access Holism and the Understanding of Science by Louis Caruana in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Philosophy & Philosophy History & Theory. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Table of Contents
  6. Preface
  7. 1. THE TASK AHEAD
  8. 2. COGNITIVE HOLISM
  9. 3. SOCIAL HOLISM
  10. 4. DISCOURSE AND PRACTICE
  11. 5. THE CASE OF SCIENCE
  12. 6. COMMON PRACTICE
  13. 7. CONSTRAINTS AND OBJECTIVITY
  14. 8. SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVITY AND REALISM
  15. Bibliography
  16. Index