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In Defense Of Scientism
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Book Synopsis In Defense of Science by : Frank R. Spellman
Download or read book In Defense of Science written by Frank R. Spellman and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-08-31 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an era when many in the science community feel that science is under attack, In Defense of Science explains why ordinary citizens need to have an understanding of science, its methods, and its groundbreaking discoveries. The authors debunk several misconceptions of science and scientists, and advocate that science is an integral part of society and everyday life. This book begins with an introduction to science and its basic concepts, including a brief and entertaining history of science and scientific discoveries, before taking on current views of science in society. It surveys the many sources of our ideas of science, including pop culture, classics of literature, news media, and political discourse. Much of the information from these sources tends to mislead, and the only way to guard against such misinformation is to become scientifically literate, and promote scientific literacy in society. The book therefore delves into the reasons that so many people do not understand basic scientific principles and do not keep up with scientific breakthroughs, and finishes by examining the current state of science education. It includes many resources for further reading, and is presented in an engaging and entertaining way.
Book Synopsis For and Against Scientism by : Moti Mizrahi
Download or read book For and Against Scientism written by Moti Mizrahi and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-04-04 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The term “scientism” is used in several ways. It is used to denote an epistemological thesis according to which science is the source of our knowledge about the world and ourselves. Relatedly, it is used to denote a methodological thesis according to which the methods of science are superior to the methods of non-scientific fields or areas of inquiry. It is also used to put forward a metaphysical thesis that what exists is what science says exists. In recent decades, the term “scientism” has acquired a derogatory meaning when it is used in defense of non-scientific ways of knowing. In particular, some philosophers level the charge of “scientism” against those (mostly scientists) who are dismissive of philosophy. Other philosophers, however, embrace scientism, or some variant thereof, and object to the pejorative use of the term. This book critically examines arguments for and against different varieties of scientism in order to answer the central question: Does scientism pose an existential threat to academic philosophy? Or should philosophy become more scientific?
Book Synopsis In Defense of Scientism by : Byron K. Jennings
Download or read book In Defense of Scientism written by Byron K. Jennings and published by Byron Jennings. This book was released on with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a series of short, perceptive and witty essays about science and how it works. The author, a long-time theoretical physicist and science administrator, shares his hard-won insights about science gained from years of working in the trenches. The approach is eclectic with examples and quotes from a wide variety of sources. However, a unified view of science is presented, namely that science is simply the straightforward application of model building and testing against observation. The technique is applicable to all walks of life, hence the title of the book.
Book Synopsis In Defense of Scientism by : Byron K. Jennings
Download or read book In Defense of Scientism written by Byron K. Jennings and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Science Unlimited? by : Maarten Boudry
Download or read book Science Unlimited? written by Maarten Boudry and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-01-12 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All too often in contemporary discourse, we hear about science overstepping its proper limits—about its brazenness, arrogance, and intellectual imperialism. The problem, critics say, is scientism: the privileging of science over all other ways of knowing. Science, they warn, cannot do or explain everything, no matter what some enthusiasts believe. In Science Unlimited?, noted philosophers of science Maarten Boudry and Massimo Pigliucci gather a diverse group of scientists, science communicators, and philosophers of science to explore the limits of science and this alleged threat of scientism. In this wide-ranging collection, contributors ask whether the term scientism in fact (or in belief) captures an interesting and important intellectual stance, and whether it is something that should alarm us. Is scientism a well-developed position about the superiority of science over all other modes of human inquiry? Or is it more a form of excessive confidence, an uncritical attitude of glowing admiration? What, if any, are its dangers? Are fears that science will marginalize the humanities and eradicate the human subject—that it will explain away emotion, free will, consciousness, and the mystery of existence—justified? Does science need to be reined in before it drives out all other disciplines and ways of knowing? Both rigorous and balanced, Science Unlimited? interrogates our use of a term that is now all but ubiquitous in a wide variety of contexts and debates. Bringing together scientists and philosophers, both friends and foes of scientism, it is a conversation long overdue.
Book Synopsis The Scientific Attitude by : Lee McIntyre
Download or read book The Scientific Attitude written by Lee McIntyre and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An argument that what makes science distinctive is its emphasis on evidence and scientists' willingness to change theories on the basis of new evidence. Attacks on science have become commonplace. Claims that climate change isn't settled science, that evolution is “only a theory,” and that scientists are conspiring to keep the truth about vaccines from the public are staples of some politicians' rhetorical repertoire. Defenders of science often point to its discoveries (penicillin! relativity!) without explaining exactly why scientific claims are superior. In this book, Lee McIntyre argues that what distinguishes science from its rivals is what he calls “the scientific attitude”—caring about evidence and being willing to change theories on the basis of new evidence. The history of science is littered with theories that were scientific but turned out to be wrong; the scientific attitude reveals why even a failed theory can help us to understand what is special about science. McIntyre offers examples that illustrate both scientific success (a reduction in childbed fever in the nineteenth century) and failure (the flawed “discovery” of cold fusion in the twentieth century). He describes the transformation of medicine from a practice based largely on hunches into a science based on evidence; considers scientific fraud; examines the positions of ideology-driven denialists, pseudoscientists, and “skeptics” who reject scientific findings; and argues that social science, no less than natural science, should embrace the scientific attitude. McIntyre argues that the scientific attitude—the grounding of science in evidence—offers a uniquely powerful tool in the defense of science.
Book Synopsis Scientism and Secularism by : J. P. Moreland
Download or read book Scientism and Secularism written by J. P. Moreland and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2018-09-20 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rigid adherence to scientism—as opposed to a healthy respect for science—is all too prevalent in our world today. Rather than leading to a deeper understanding of our universe, this worldview actually undermines real science and marginalizes morality and religion. In this book, celebrated philosopher J. P. Moreland exposes the selfdefeating nature of scientism and equips us to recognize scientism’s harmful presence in different aspects of culture, emboldening our witness to biblical Christianity and arming us with strategies for the integration of faith and science—the only feasible path to genuine knowledge.
Book Synopsis The Myth of the Framework by : Karl Popper
Download or read book The Myth of the Framework written by Karl Popper and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-04-23 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a career spanning sixty years, Sir Karl Popper has made some of the most important contributions to the twentieth century discussion of science and rationality. The Myth of the Framework is a new collection of some of Popper's most important material on this subject. Sir Karl discusses such issues as the aims of science, the role that it plays in our civilization, the moral responsibility of the scientist, the structure of history, and the perennial choice between reason and revolution. In doing so, he attacks intellectual fashions (like positivism) that exagerrate what science and rationality have done, as well as intellectual fashions (like relativism) that denigrate what science and rationality can do. Scientific knowledge, according to Popper, is one of the most rational and creative of human achievements, but it is also inherently fallible and subject to revision. In place of intellectual fashions, Popper offers his own critical rationalism - a view that he regards both as a theory of knowlege and as an attitude towards human life, human morals and democracy. Published in cooperation with the Central European University.
Book Synopsis Why Trust Science? by : Naomi Oreskes
Download or read book Why Trust Science? written by Naomi Oreskes and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why the social character of scientific knowledge makes it trustworthy Are doctors right when they tell us vaccines are safe? Should we take climate experts at their word when they warn us about the perils of global warming? Why should we trust science when so many of our political leaders don't? Naomi Oreskes offers a bold and compelling defense of science, revealing why the social character of scientific knowledge is its greatest strength—and the greatest reason we can trust it. Tracing the history and philosophy of science from the late nineteenth century to today, this timely and provocative book features a new preface by Oreskes and critical responses by climate experts Ottmar Edenhofer and Martin Kowarsch, political scientist Jon Krosnick, philosopher of science Marc Lange, and science historian Susan Lindee, as well as a foreword by political theorist Stephen Macedo.
Book Synopsis Defending Science - within Reason by : Susan Haack
Download or read book Defending Science - within Reason written by Susan Haack and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2011-03-30 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sweeping in scope, penetrating in analysis, and generously illustrated with examples from the history of science, this new and original approach to familiar questions about scientific evidence and method tackles vital questions about science and its place in society. Avoiding the twin pitfalls of scientism and cynicism, noted philosopher Susan Haack argues that, fallible and flawed as they are, the natural sciences have been among the most successful of human enterprises-valuable not only for the vast, interlocking body of knowledge they have discovered, and not only for the technological advances that have improved our lives, but as a manifestation of the human talent for inquiry at its imperfect but sometimes remarkable best. This wide-ranging, trenchant, and illuminating book explores the complexities of scientific evidence, and the multifarious ways in which the sciences have refined and amplified the methods of everyday empirical inquiry; articulates the ways in which the social sciences are like the natural sciences, and the ways in which they are different; disentangles the confusions of radical rhetoricians and cynical sociologists of science; exposes the evasions of apologists for religious resistance to scientific advances; weighs the benefits and the dangers of technology; tracks the efforts of the legal system to make the best use of scientific testimony; and tackles predictions of the eventual culmination, or annihilation, of the scientific enterprise. Writing with verve and wry humor, in a witty, direct, and accessible style, Haack takes readers beyond the "Science Wars" to a balanced understanding of the value, and the limitations, of the scientific enterprise.
Book Synopsis Wittgenstein and Scientism by : Jonathan Beale
Download or read book Wittgenstein and Scientism written by Jonathan Beale and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-06-14 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wittgenstein criticised prevailing attitudes toward the sciences. The target of his criticisms was ‘scientism’: what he described as ‘the overestimation of science’. This collection is the first study of Wittgenstein’s anti-scientism - a theme in his work that is clearly central to his thought yet strikingly neglected by the existing literature. The book explores the philosophical basis of Wittgenstein’s anti-scientism; how this anti-scientism helps us understand Wittgenstein’s philosophical aims; and how this underlies his later conception of philosophy and the kind of philosophy he attacked. An outstanding team of international contributors articulate and critically assess Wittgenstein’s views on scientism and anti-scientism, making Wittgenstein and Scientism essential reading for students and scholars of Wittgenstein’s work, on topics as varied as the philosophy of mind and psychology, philosophical practice, the nature of religious belief, and the place of science in modern culture. Contributors: Jonathan Beale, William Child, Annalisa Coliva, David E. Cooper, Ian James Kidd, James C. Klagge, Danièle Moyal-Sharrock, Rupert Read, Genia Schönbaumsfeld, Severin Schroeder, Benedict Smith, and Chon Tejedor.
Download or read book Scientism written by Jeroen de Ridder and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can only science deliver genuine knowledge about the world and ourselves? Is science our only guide to what exists? Scientism answers both questions with yes. Scientism is increasingly influential in popular scientific literature and intellectual life in general, but philosophers have hitherto largely ignored it. This collection is one of the first to develop and assess scientism as a serious philosophical position. It features twelve new essays by both proponents and critics of scientism. Before scientism can be evaluated, it needs to be clear what it is. Hence, the collection opens with essays that provide an overview of the many different versions of scientism and their mutual interrelations. Next, several card-carrying proponents of scientism make their case, either by developing and arguing directly for their preferred version of scientism or by responding to objections. Then, the floor is given to critics of scientism. It is examined whether scientism is epistemically vicious, whether scientism presents a plausible general epistemological outlook and whether science has limits. The final four essays zoom out and connect scientism to ongoing debates elsewhere in philosophy. What does scientism mean for religious epistemology? What can science tell us about morality and is a scientistic moral epistemology plausible? How is scientism related to physicalism? And is experimental philosophy really a form of scientism tailored to philosophy?
Book Synopsis Scientism: Science, Ethics and Religion by : Mikael Stenmark
Download or read book Scientism: Science, Ethics and Religion written by Mikael Stenmark and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-10-28 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title was first published in 20/11/2001: The intellectual and practical successes of science have led some scientists to think that there are no real limits to the competence of scienece, and no limits to what can be achieved in the name of science. This view (and similar views) have been called Scientism. In this book, scientists' views about science and its relationship to knowledge, ethics and religion are subjected to critical scrutiny. A number of natural scientists have advocated Scientism in one form or another - Francis Crick, Richard Dawkins, Carl Sagan, and Edward O. Wilson - and their impact inside and outside the sciences is considered. Clarifying what Scientism is, this book proceeds to evaluate its key claims, expounded in questions such as: is it the case that science can tell us everything there is to know about reality? Can science tell us how we morally ought to live and what the meaning of life is? Can science in fact be our new religion? Ought we become "science believers"? The author addresses these and similar issues, concluding that Scientism is not really science but disguised materialism or naturalism; its advocates fail to see this, not being sufficiently aware that their arguments presuppose the previous acceptance of certain extra-scientific or philosophical beliefs
Book Synopsis Science of Science and Reflexivity by : Pierre Bourdieu
Download or read book Science of Science and Reflexivity written by Pierre Bourdieu and published by Polity. This book was released on 2004 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adressing a range of issues and debates in the natural and social sciences, this work provides a sociological analysis of science which enables readers to understand the social mechanisms which shape scientific practice.
Download or read book The New Atlantis written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 590 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Evaluating Philosophies by : Mario Bunge
Download or read book Evaluating Philosophies written by Mario Bunge and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-07-04 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first part deals with philosophies that have had a significant input, positive or negative, on the search for truth; it suggests that scientific and technological are either stimulated or smothered by a philosophical matrix; and it outlines two ontological doctrines believed to have nurtured research in modern times: systemism (not to be mistaken for holism) and materialism (as an extension of physicalism). The second part discusses a few practical problems that are being actively discussed in the literature, from climatology and information science to economics and legal philosophy. This discussion is informed by the general principles analyzed in the first part of the book. Some of the conclusions are that standard economic theory is just as inadequate as Marxism; that law and order are weak without justice; and that the central equation of normative climatology is a tautology–which of course does not put climate change in doubt. The third and final part of the book tackles a set of key concepts, such as those of indicator, energy, and existence, that have been either taken for granted or neglected. For instance, it is argued that there is at least one existence predicate, and that it is unrelated to the so-called existential quantifier; that high level hypotheses cannot be put to the test unless conjoined with indicator hypotheses; and that induction cannot produce high level hypotheses because empirical data do not contain any transempirical concepts. Realism, materialism, and systemism are thus refined and vindicated.
Book Synopsis The Republican War on Science by : Chris Mooney
Download or read book The Republican War on Science written by Chris Mooney and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2007-03-16 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science has never been more crucial to deciding the political issues facing the country. Yet science and scientists have less influence with the federal government than at any time since Richard Nixon fired his science advisors. In the White House and Congress today, findings are reported in a politicized manner; spun or distorted to fit the speaker's agenda; or, when they're too inconvenient, ignored entirely. On a broad array of issues-stem cell research, climate change, evolution, sex education, product safety, environmental regulation, and many others-the Bush administration's positions fly in the face of overwhelming scientific consensus. Federal science agencies-once fiercely independent under both Republican and Democratic presidents-are increasingly staffed by political appointees who know industry lobbyists and evangelical activists far better than they know the science. This is not unique to the Bush administration, but it is largely a Republican phenomenon, born of a conservative dislike of environmental, health, and safety regulation, and at the extremes, of evolution and legalized abortion. In The Republican War on Science, Chris Mooney ties together the disparate strands of the attack on science into a compelling and frightening account of our government's increasing unwillingness to distinguish between legitimate research and ideologically driven pseudoscience.
