The Fate of KnowledgeHelen Longino seeks to break the current deadlock in the ongoing wars between philosophers of science and sociologists of science--academic battles founded on disagreement about the role of social forces in constructing scientific knowledge. While many philosophers of science downplay social forces, claiming that scientific knowledge is best considered as a product of cognitive processes, sociologists tend to argue that numerous noncognitive factors influence what scientists learn, how they package it, and how readily it is accepted. Underlying this disagreement, however, is a common assumption that social forces are a source of bias and irrationality. Longino challenges this assumption, arguing that social interaction actually assists us in securing firm, rationally based knowledge. This important insight allows her to develop a durable and novel account of scientific knowledge that integrates the social and cognitive. |
Contents
Introduction The RationalSocial Dichotomy | 1 |
Taking Social Studies of Science Seriously | 11 |
The Philosophers Respond | 42 |
Disassembling the RationalSocial Dichotomy | 77 |
Socializing Cognition | 97 |
Socializing Knowledge | 124 |