The limits of science / Nicholas Rescher.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rescher, Nicholas, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science--Philosophy.

Science.

Krasnyĭ putilovet︠s︡--History.

Krasnyĭ putilovet︠s︡.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (297 p.)

Edition:

Revised edition.

Place of Publication:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania : University of Pittsburgh Press, 1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Perfected science is but an idealization that provides a useful contrast to highlight the limited character of what we do and can attain. This lies at the core of various debates in the philosophy of science and Rescher's discussion focuses on the question: how far could science go in principle-what are the theoretical limits on science? He concentrates on what science can discover, not what it should discover. He explores in detail the existence of limits or limitations on scientific inquiry, especially those that, in principle, preclude the full realization of the aims of science, as opposed to those that relate to economic obstacles to scientific progress. Rescher also places his argument within the politics of the day, where "strident calls of ideological extremes surround us," ranging from the exaggeration that "science can do anything"--To the antiscientism that views science as a costly diversion we would be well advised to abandon. Rescher offers a middle path between these two extremes and provides an appreciation of the actual powers and limitations of science, not only to philosophers of science but also to a larger, less specialized audience.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Preface

Introduction

1. Question Dynamics and Problems of Scientific Completeness

1. The Role of Presuppositions

2. Question Dissolution

3. Kant's Principle of Question Propagation

4. Cognitive Completeness: Question-Answering (or "Erotetic") Completeness

2. Questions and Scientific Progress

1. Question Dialectics and Scientific Progress

2. The Lessons of History

3. The Pragmatic Dimension of Progress

3. The Instability of Science

1. The Comparative Fragility of Science: Scientific Claims as Mere Estimates

2. Fallibilism and the Distinction Between Our (Putative) Truth and the Real Truth

3. Cognitive Copernicanism

4. The Problem of Progress

4. Complexity Escalation as an Obstacle to Completing Science

1. Spencer's Law: The Dynamics of Cognitive Complexity

2. The Principle of Least Effort and the Methodological Status of Simplicity-Preference in Science

3. Complexification and the Disintegration of Science

4. The Expansion of Science

5. The Law of Logarithmic Returns

6. The Rationale and Implication of the Law

7. The Growth of Knowledge

8. The Centrality of Quality and Its Implications

5. Against Convergentism

1. The Diminishing-Returns View of Scientific Progress and Its Flaws

2. A Critique of the Self-Correction Thesis

3. The Instability of Science: The Role of Conceptual Innovation

4. The Potential Limitlessness of Scientific Change

5. The Role of Cognitive Limits

6. Scientific Changes Maintain a Uniform Level of Significance

6. Question Dynamics and Problems of Scientific Completeness

1. The Impracticability of an All-Purpose Predictive Engine

2. Problems of Reflexivity and Metaprediction

7. The Unpredictability of Future Science

1. Difficulties in Predicting Future Science.

2. Present Science Cannot Speak for Future Science

3. Against Domain Limitations

8. Against lnsolubilia

1. The Idea of Insolubilia

2. The Reymond-Haeckel Controversy

3. Some Purported Scientific Insolubilia

4. The Infeasibility of Identifying Insolubilia

9. The Price of an Ultimate Theory

1. The Principle of Sufficient Reason

2. The Idea of an Ultimate Theory

3. An Aporetic Situation

4. A Way Out of the Impasse

5. Implications

6. Historical Postscript

10. The Theoretical Unrealizability of Perfected Science

1. Conditions of Perfected Science

2. Theoretical Adequacy: Issues of Erotetic Completeness

3. Pragmatic Completeness

4. Predictive Completeness

5. Temporal Finality

6. The Dispensability of Perfection

7. "Perfected Science" as an Idealization that Affords a Useful Contrast Conception

8. Science and Reality

11. The Practical Infeasibility of Perfecting Science

1. Technological Escalation

2. Rising Costs

3. Economic Requirements Spell Economic Limitations

12. Can Computers Overcome Our Limitations?

1. Could Computers Overcome Our Limitations?

2. General-Principle Limits Are not Meaningful Limitations

3. Practical Limits: Inadequate Information

4. Practical Limits: Transcomputability and Real-Time Processing Difficulties

5. Practical Limits: Limitations of Representation in Matters of Detail Management

6. Performative Limits of Prediction-Self-Insight Obstacles

7. Performative Limits: A Deeper Look

8. Contrast with Algorithmic Decision Theory

9. A Computer Insolubilium

10. The Human Element: Can People Solve Problems that Computers Cannot?

11. Potential Difficulties

Appendix to Chapter 12: On the Plausibility of T1 and T2

13. Extraterrestrial Science (Could Aliens Overcome Our Limitations?).

1. Could Science in Another Setting Overcome the Limitations of Our Human Science?

2. The Potential Diversity of "Science

3. The One-World, One-Science Argument

4. Comparability and Judgments of Relative Advancement

5. First Principles

6. The Implausibility of Being Outdistanced

Appendix: References for Chapter 13

14. The Limits of Quantification in Human Affairs

1. The Problem

2. Quantification Versus Measurement: What Makes a Number Meaningful?

3. Problematic Measurements

4. Quality of Life as an Example

5. Fallacies of Quantification

6. Larger Vistas

15. The Limited Province of Natural Science

1. Knowledge as One Good Among Others

2. Scientific Knowledge as One Mode of Knowledge

3. The Autonomy of Science

4. Conclusion

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780822972068

0822972069

OCLC:

891385628