Philosophical engagements with distant sciences

Abstract

This essay considers problems and advantages of philosophical involvement with sciences distant from our own. It endorses the view that, rather than testing of philosophical hypotheses against historical data, this is a matter of interpretation and explication. Guidelines for accessing and interpreting others' sciences are proposed: a common ground maxim, relating to our need to find practices, questions and beliefs that we share with them; and a coherence maxim, relating to the need to do justice to the often alien ways in which others' beliefs and practices may form coherent systems. Examples are then given of ways in which examination of distant sciences, guided by the common ground and coherence maxims, can challenge current philosophical assumptions and enrich our philosophical agenda.

Expanding Horizons in the History of Science

“…I thus see myself as joining forces with recommendations that Jardine has recently made in the second collective volume devoted to 'Science in the Forest, Science in the Past' (Jardine 2021). Drawing on the work of Tsing (2005, cf.…”