Skip to main content
Log in

(RE)Inventing Scheffler, or, Defending Objective Educational Research

  • Published:
Studies in Philosophy and Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Israel Scheffler's book Science and Subjectivity (1967) was prescient: His criticisms of attacks on the traditional notions of objectivity and truth that underlie modern science are still relevant nearly thirty years later, when postmodernism and some varieties of feminist epistemology are winning many adherents. Two aspects of Scheffler's book are singled out for discussion – his philosophical style, which is marked by careful, well-developed, and detailed argument (in contrast to many contemporary writers in education who have postmodernist leanings, who merely make assertions about objectivity and so forth); and the actual content of the positions for which he argues.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Alcoff, L., and Potter, E. (eds.): 1993, Feminist Epistemologies, New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cherryholmes, C.: 1988, Power and Criticism: Poststructural Investigations in Education, New York: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisner, E.: 1979, The Educational Imagination, New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feyerabend, P.: 1987, Farewell to Reason, London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gellner, E.: 1992, Postmodernism, Reason, and Religion, London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greene, M.: 1994, “Epistemology and Educational Research: The Influence of Recent Approaches to Knowledge”, in L. Darling-Hammond, (ed.), Review of Research in Education, 20, pp. 423–464.

  • Harding, S.: 1987, “The Instability of the Analytical Categories of Feminist Theory”, in S. Harding and J.O'Barr, (eds). Sex and Scientific Inquiry, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keller, E.F.: 1985, Reflections on Gender and Science. New Haven, CT.: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohli, W.: 1995, Critical Conversations in Philosophy of Education, New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyotard, J.-F.: 1984, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Norris, C.: 1993, The Truth About Postmodernism, Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, D.C.: 1987, Philosophy, Science, and Social Inquiry, Oxford: Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, D.C.: 1992, The Social Scientist's Bestiary, Oxford: Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rorty, R.: 1979, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheffler, I.: 1967, Science and Subjectivity, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheffler, I.: 1986, Inquiries, Indianapolis: Hackett.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Phillips, D.C. (RE)Inventing Scheffler, or, Defending Objective Educational Research. Studies in Philosophy and Education 16, 149–158 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004959323456

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004959323456

Keywords

Navigation