How Scientific Practices Matter: Reclaiming Philosophical Naturalism

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University of Chicago Press, 2002 - Philosophy - 383 pages
How can we understand the world as a whole instead of separate natural and human realms? Joseph T. Rouse proposes an approach to this classic problem based on radical new conceptions of both philosophical naturalism and scientific practice.

Rouse begins with a detailed critique of modern thought on naturalism, from Neurath and Heidegger to Charles Taylor, Thomas Kuhn, and W. V. O. Quine. He identifies two constraints central to a philosophically robust naturalism: it must impose no arbitrarily philosophical restrictions on science, and it must shun even the most subtle appeals to mysterious or supernatural forces. Thus a naturalistic approach requires philosophers to show that their preferred conception of nature is what scientific inquiry discloses, and that their conception of scientific understanding is itself intelligible as part of the natural world. Finally, Rouse draws on feminist science studies and other recent work on causality and discourse to demonstrate the crucial role that closer attention to scientific practice can play in reclaiming naturalism.

A bold and ambitious book, How Scientific Practices Matter seeks to provide a viable—yet nontraditional—defense of a naturalistic conception of philosophy and science. Its daring proposals will spark much discussion and debate among philosophers, historians, and sociologists of science.
 

Contents

The Dualism of Nature and Normativity
77
Quinean Indeterminacy and Its Implications
106
Feminist Challenges to the Reification of Knowledge
135
Two Concepts of Scientific Practices
161
Perception Action and Discursive Practices
184
Experimentation Theory and the Normativity
263
Natural Necessity and the Normativity
301
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About the author (2002)

Joseph Rouse is professor of philosophy at Wesleyan University, where he is also affiliated with the Science in Society and Environmental Studies programs. He is the author of four previous books, including Articulating the World: Conceptual Understanding and the Scientific Image and How Scientific Practices Matter: Reclaiming Philosophical Naturalism, both also published by the University of Chicago Press.

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