Rationality Relativism And The Human Sciences

Author : Joseph Margolis,A.S. Krausz,R. Burian
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 245 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789400943629

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Rationality, Relativism and the Human Sciences by Joseph Margolis,A.S. Krausz,R. Burian Pdf

The Greater Philadelphia Philosophy Consortium was launched in the early eighties. It began during a particularly lean period in the American economy. But its success is linked as much to the need to be in touch with the rapidly changing currents of the philosophical climate as with the need to insure an adequately stocked professional community in the Philadelphia area faced, perhaps permanently, with the threat of increasing attrition. The member schools of the Consortium now include Bryn Mawr College, the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, and Villanova University, that is, the schools of the area that offer advanced degrees in philosophy. The philosophy faculties of these schools form the core of the Consortium, which offers graduate students the instructional and library facilities of each member school. The Consortium is also supported by the associated faculties of other regional schools that do not offer advanced degrees - notably, those at Drexel University, Haverford College, La Salle University, and Swarthmore College - both philosophers and members of other departments as well as interested and professionally qualified persons from the entire region. The affiliated and core professionals now number several hundreds, and the Consortium's various ventures have been received most enthusiastically by the academic community. At this moment, the Consortium is planning its fifth year of what it calls the Conferences on the Philosophy of the Human Studies.

Author : I.C. Jarvie
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 159 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2015-07-03
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317401179

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Rationality and Relativism by I.C. Jarvie Pdf

Anthropology revolves round answers to problems about the nature, development and unity of mankind; problems that are both philosophical and scientific. In this book, first published in 1984, Professor Jarvie applies Popper’s philosophy of science to understanding the history and theory of anthropology. Jarvie describes how the ancient view that the aim of science and philosophy was to get at the truth is challenged in anthropology by the doctrine of cultural relativism; that is, that truth varies with the cultural framework. He shows how philosophers as various as Peter Winch, W.V.O. Quine, W.T. Jones, Nelson Goodman and Richard Rorty were influenced by this doctrine. Yet these philosophers also accept the value of rational argument. Jarvie believes that there is a contradiction between relativism and any notion of human rationality that centres around argument. Forced by the contradiction to choose between rationality and relativism, he argues strongly that logical, scientific and moral considerations favour rationality and urge repudiation of relativism. The central argument of the book is that relativism is intellectually disastrous and has fostered intellectual attitudes from which anthropology still suffers.

Author : Howard Sankey
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2018-12-24
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780429776113

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Rationality, Relativism and Incommensurability by Howard Sankey Pdf

First published in 1997, this volume brings together a series of essays on the philosophy of science and responds to the "crisis of rationality" which evolved from the denial of both a stable methodology and a common language for science. Howard Sankey holds that important insights about scientific methodology and rationality may be gleaned from the historical approach, from which the existence of profound conceptual change in science, as well as the absence of a neutral observation language, are important findings. Half of Sankey’s essays concentrate specifically on the thesis that alternative scientific theories are incommensurable due to semantic differences between the vocabulary in which they are expressed. Several others seek to derive a new way of thinking about scientific rationality from the historical critique of the idea of a fixed scientific method. Still others demonstrate how some seemingly relativistic themes of the historical approach may be embraced in a non-relativistic manner within the context of a pluralistic and naturalistic theory of scientific methodology and rationality.

Author : Edward Craig
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 896 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 1998
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0415187095

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Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Genealogy to Iqbal by Edward Craig Pdf

Volume four of a ten volume set which provides full and detailed coverage of all aspects of philosophy, including information on how philosophy is practiced in different countries, who the most influential philosophers were, and what the basic concepts are.

Author : Len Doyal,Roger Harris
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 231 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2013-04-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781135028695

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Empiricism, Explanation and Rationality by Len Doyal,Roger Harris Pdf

Originally published in 1986. All students of social science must confront a number of important philosophical issues. This introduction to the philosophy of the social sciences provides coherent answers to questions about empiricism, explanation and rationality. It evaluates contemporary writings on the subject which can be as difficult as they are important to understand. Each chapter has an annotated bibliography to enable students to pursue the issues raised and to assess for themselves the arguments of the authors.

Author : Ernest Gellner
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 1987-02-26
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0521337984

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Relativism and the Social Sciences by Ernest Gellner Pdf

Considers human diversity and change and rejects the usual solutions to problems of relativism. Presents a new mode of inquiry in its stead a mixture of philosophy, history, and anthropology that appears to be more meaningful.

Author : Nenad Miscevic
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2000-12-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781442658936

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Rationality and Cognition by Nenad Miscevic Pdf

Cognitive science has posed some radical challenges to philosophy in recent years, particularly in the study of the cognitive activities and capacities of individuals. Many philosophers have taken up the challenge, and one result has been the emergence of a radical new wave of relativism, one that assaults the credibility of rationalist views. In this book Nenad Mis̆c̆ević defends naturalistic rationalism against these recent relativist attacks. The book begins with an excellent introduction to cognitive science, and goes on to create a searching defence of human rationality and of a traditional role for truth in epistemology. Mis̆c̆ević presents a critical scrutiny of the relativism championed by Stephen Stich and Paul Churchland and their followers, showing that it not only exaggerates the subversive impact of science, but relies on its links with naturalism for much of its crediblity. His careful dissection of relativist arguments establishes the main outlines of a positive rationalistic picture that is both original and convincing.

Author : Nancy Cartwright,Eleonora Montuschi
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2014-11-06
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780191030086

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Philosophy of Social Science by Nancy Cartwright,Eleonora Montuschi Pdf

This is a much-needed new introduction to a field that has been transformed in recent years by exciting new subjects, ideas, and methods. It is designed both for students with central interests in philosophy and those planning to concentrate on the social sciences, and it presupposes no particular background in either domain. From the wide range of topics at the forefront of debate in philosophy of social science, the editors have chosen those which are representative of the most important and interesting contemporary work. A team of distinguished experts explore key aspects of the field such as social ontology (what are the things that social science studies?), objectivity, formal methods, measurement, and causal inference. Also included are chapters focused on notable subjects of social science research, such as well-being and climate change. Philosophy of Social Science provides a clear, accessible, and up-to-date guide to this fascinating field.

Author : Roger Trigg
Publisher : Wiley-Blackwell
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 1993-12-08
Category : Science
ISBN : 0631190376

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Rationality and Science by Roger Trigg Pdf

In this important new work, Professor Trigg deals with the question of the rational foundations of science. In so doing, he explains and evaluates the views of Rorty, Wittgensteing, Quine, Putnam, and Hawking, amongst others. The limits of science and rationality are explored and the power of human reason is in the end upheld.

Author : Karl Popper
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 245 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2014-04-23
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781135974732

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The Myth of the Framework by Karl Popper Pdf

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.

Author : J.R. Brown
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 332 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2013-11-11
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789401576888

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Scientific Rationality: The Sociological Turn by J.R. Brown Pdf

Author : Diederick Raven
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 229 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2020-02-18
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781000675115

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Cognitive Relativism and Social Science by Diederick Raven Pdf

Modern epistomology has been dominated by an empiricist theory of knowledge that assumes a direct individualistic relationship between the knowing subject and the object of knowledge. Truth is held to be universal, and non-individualistic social and cultural factors are considered sources of distortion of true knowledge. Since the late 1950s, this view has been challenged by a cognitive relativism asserting that what is true is socially conditioned. This volume examines the far-reaching implications of this development for the social sciences.Recently, cognitive relativism has become a key issue of debate in anthropology, philosophy, and sociology. In anthropology this is illustrated by a growing awareness of the similarity of all systems of knowledge. In philosophy it is exemplified by the realization that traditional monolithic and absolutist concepts of truth have increasingly lost any power to make sense and to convince. In sociology it is visible in a renewal of interest in a general sociology of knowledge. Yet, in spite of this convergence of interests, practitioners of these three disciplines have on the whole shown no inclination to reach a consensus on the terms of reference that could facilitate an interdisciplinary approach.Cognitive Relativism and Social Science aims to do just this. It is a working assumption of this volume that, as far as the subject of cognitive relativism is concerned, anthropologists, philosophers, and sociologists should join forces rather than try to deal with the challenges of cognitive relativism within strictly imposed boundaries that normally separate academic disciplines. Only when they work together will it be possible to treat the problems posed by cognitive relativism in an adequate way. This volume provides the results of attempts to communicate on cognitve relativism across disciplinary boundaries. This is must reading in the philosophy of social science and in social research theory.

Author : W.H. Newton-Smith
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2002-02-07
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781134930968

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The Rationality of Science by W.H. Newton-Smith Pdf

First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Author : Cynthia Lins Hamlin
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 167 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2004-01-14
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781134575930

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Beyond Relativism by Cynthia Lins Hamlin Pdf

This book argues that critical realism offers the theory of cognitive rationality a real way of overcoming the limitations of methodological individualism by recognising both the agents' - and the social structure's - causal powers and liabilities. Cynthia Lins Hamlin persuasively argues that critical realism represents a better safeguard against the relativism which springs from the conflation of social reality and our ideas about it. This is an important book for sociologists and anyone working in the social sciences, and for all those concerned with the methodology, and philosophy, of social science.

Author : Richard J. Bernstein
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
Page : 310 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2011-09-16
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780812205503

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Beyond Objectivism and Relativism by Richard J. Bernstein Pdf

Drawing freely and expertly from Continental and analytic traditions, Richard Bernstein examines a number of debates and controversies exemplified in the works of Gadamer, Habermas, Rorty, and Arendt. He argues that a "new conversation" is emerging about human rationality—a new understanding that emphasizes its practical character and has important ramifications both for thought and action.