Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nr4z6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-10T03:53:37.489Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

In Praise of Truth and Substantive Rationality: Comments on Laudan’s Progress and Its Problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2023

Noretta Koertge
Noretta Koertge*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Like most philosophers, Laudan [7] believes that by and large science makes cognitive progress and that the development of science is more or less rational. His book deals with two major problems:

  1. (a) In what sense does science progress? What is scientific progress?

  2. (b) Wherein lies the rationality of the growth of science? What is scientific rationality?

In the main body of this paper, I first summarize and evaluate some of Laudan’s criticisms of his predecessors. Then I outline and criticize Laudan’s own theory of scientific progress and scientific rationality. In the Postscript I sketch my own views concerning the issue of changes in the canons of scientific rationality and the problem of using history to evaluate normative theories of scientific rationality.

Type
Part XII. Laudan’s Progress and Its Problems
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1978 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1978 , 1978 , pp. 505 - 521
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

I would like to acknowledge Alberto Coffa’s many helpful comments and probing questions. The Postcript of this paper is a direct result of discussions with History and Philosophy of Science students in my seminar on Theories of Scientific Progress, Spring 1979.

References

[1] Grünbaum, Adolf. “Can a Theory Answer more Questions than one of its Rivals?” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 27(1976): 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2] Koertge, Noretta. “Does Social Science Really Need Metaphysics?” In Grundproblems der Sozialwissenschaften. Edited by Albert, H. and Stapf, K. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta (forthcoming).Google Scholar
[3] Koertge, Noretta. “Galileo and the Problem of Accidents.” Journal of the History of Ideas 38(1977): 389–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[4] Koertge, Noretta. “The Problem of Appraising Scientific Theories.” In Current Research in Philosophy of Science. Edited by Asquith, P. and Kyburg, H. East Lansing: Philosophy of Science Association, 1979. Pages 228–251.Google Scholar
[5] Lakatos, Imré. “History of Science and its Rational Reconstructions.” In PSA 1970: In Memory of Rudolf Carnap. (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science Vol. VIII.) Edited by Buck, R. C., et. al. Dordrecht-Holland; Reidel, 1971. Pages 91–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[6] Laudan, Larry. “Historical Methodologies: An Overview and Manifesto.” In Current Research in Philosophy of Science. Edited by Asquith, P. and Kyburg, H. East Lansing: Philosophy of Science Association, 1979. Pages 40–54.Google Scholar
[7] Laudan, Larry. Progress and its Problems: Towards a Theory of Scientific Growth. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977.Google Scholar
[8] Simon, H. A. “From Substantive to Procedural Rationality.” In Method and Appraisal in Economics. Edited by Latsis, Spiro Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976. Pages 129–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[9] Thoren, Victor. “The Acquital of Ptolemy,” Scientific American 240 #3(1979): 90–93.Google Scholar
[10] Thoren, Victor. “Claudius Ptolemy and Ancient Astronomy.” Unpublished Manuscript.Google Scholar
[11] Tversky, Amos and Kahneman, Daniel. “Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases.” Science 185 (1974): 1124–1131.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed