Science and its history : a reassessment of the historiography of science / by Joseph Agassi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Agassi, Joseph.

Contributor:

Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

Series:

Boston studies in the philosophy of science ; v. 253.

Boston studies in the philosophy of science ; v. 253

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science--History.

Science.

History.

Science--Philosophy.

Science--Historiography.

Physical Description:

xxi, 514 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

[Dordrecht?] : Springer, [2008]

Summary:

The series Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science was conceived in the broadest framework of interdisciplinary and international concerns. Natural scientists, mathematicians, social scientists and philosophers have contributed to the series, as have historians and sociologists of science, linguists, psychologists, physicians, and literary critics.

Along with the principal collaboration of Americans, the series has been able to include works by authors from many other countries around the world. As European science has become world science, philosophical, historical, and critical studies of that science have become of universal interest as well.

The editors believe that philosophy of science should itself be scientific, hypothetical as well as self-consciously critical, humane as well as rational, sceptical and undogmatic while also receptive to discussion of first principles. One of the aims of Boston Studies, therefore, is to develop collaboration among scientists and philosophers. However, because of this merging, not only has the neat structure of classical physics changed, but, also, a variety of wide-ranging questions have been encountered. As a result, philosophy of science has become epistemological and historical: once the identification of scientific method with that of physics had been queried, not only did biology and psychology come under scrutiny, but so did history and the social sciences, particularly economics, sociology, and anthropology.

Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science looks into and reflects on all these interactions in an effort to understand the scientific enterprise from every viewpoint.

Contents:

I Chroniclers in the Courts of Science: Preliminary Essays on the Traditions and the History of Science 1

Introductory Note: On Studies and Their Motivations 5

First Preliminary Essay: On the Desirable Standard of Publication 11

Second Preliminary Essay: On the Desirable Standard of Criticism 33

Third Preliminary Essay: On the Desirable Standard of Popular Science 56

Fourth Preliminary Essay: On the Merit of Flogging Dead Horses 91

Concluding Preliminary Essay: On the Sifting of the Grain from the Chaff 117

II Towards an Historiography of Science 119

Corrections 120

1 The Inductivist Philosophy Paints Ideas and Even Thinkers as Black or White; Its Criterion for Whiteness is the Up-to-Date Science Textbook 125

2 The Function of Inductive Histories of Science is Largely Ritualistic, a Kind of Ancestor-Worship 128

3 The Standard Problems of The Inductivist Historian largely Concern Questions of Whom to Worship and for What Reason 131

4 History of Science - as It Is and as It Ought to Be. For the Inductivist, These are Embarrassingly Different 135

5 The Inductivist Technique, However, is to Ignore this Problem and to Transcribe Ever Increasing Numbers of Historical Details; this Leaves Little Time for Thinking Critically 138

6 Ampere's Discovery is a Case that may be Studied Fruitfully with the use of Historical Material that Should Neither be Transcribed as it Stands nor Ignored 143

7 The Broad Outline of the History of Science is the History of Scientific Schools of Thought and Their Controversies; the Inductivist must Ignore Schools and Controversies; He is thus Left with Some Version of Marxist Economism as the Only Tool for Studying the Broad Outline 146

8 The Rise of the Conventionalist Philosophy was Largely due to Revolt Against Inductivism and its Black-and-White Categorizing 150

9 The Continuity Theory and the Emergence Technique were Invented by Duhem as a Traditionalist Conservative Alternative to Inductivist Radicalism 153

10 The Cancerous Growth of Continuity into a Multitude of Variations on Duhem's Theme is Irrational 155

11 The Comparative Method of the Conventionalist Applies a Criterion of Relative Rather than of Absolute Merit; It is the First Systematic Historical Method to Appear in the Field of History of Science; but the Comparative Method, Though Adequate to a Degree, has a Limited Application 162

12 Priestley's Dissent from the French School of Chemistry is Historically Important, Yet it does not Fit the Conventionalist Framework Because Conventionalism too Leaves Little Room for Controversy 166

13 The Advantage of Avoiding being Wise after the Event is that This Allows us to See the World with the Eyes of Those Who Participated in the Event, and Thus to Explain It 169

14 The Difficulty of Avoiding being Wise After the Event Arises from Having Suppressed the Reasonable Errors that the Event has Corrected 172

15 The Obstacles on the Way to a New Idea are Accepted Reasonable Errors that Contradict it 175

16 The Obstacles on the Way to a New Factual Discovery are the Same 180

17 Orsted's Discovery was Difficult to Make Because It Conflicted with Newton's Theory of Force 186

18 Historical Explanation of Any Value is Rare in the Annals of the History of Science, Mainly Because of a Naive Acceptance of Untenable Philosophical Principles 193

III Historiographic essays 243

1 A Retrospect 245

2 The Place of Metaphysics in the Historiography of Science 254

3 Rationality: Philosophical, Social, and Historical Aspects 266

4 Between the Philosophy and the History of Science 285

5 Scientific Disagreement 295

6 Kuhn's Way 306

IV Historical Essays 335

1 Who Needs Aristotle? 336

2 The Desire for Reason and the Rise of Modern Science: The Role of Maimonides 347

3 The Riddle of Bacon 362

4 Who Discovered Boyle's law? 388

5 Theoretical Bias in Evidence: A Historical Sketch 445

6 Field Theory in De la Rive's Treatise on Electricity 460

7 Anthropomorphism in Science 476

8 Newtonianism Before and After the Einstenian Revolution 482.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9781402056314

1402056311

OCLC:

262282521