The Road Since Structure

Abstract

On this occasion, and in this place, I feel that I ought, and am probably expected, to look back at the things which have happened to the philosophy of science since I first began to take an interest in it over half a century ago. But I am both too much an outsider and too much a protagonist to undertake that assignment. Rather than attempt to situate the present state of philosophy of science with respect to its past — a subject on which I’ve little authority — I shall try to situate my present state in philosophy of science with respect to its own past — a subject on which, however imperfect, I’m probably the best authority there is.As a number of you know, I’m at work on a book, and what I mean to attempt here is an exceedingly brief and dogmatic sketch of its main themes. I think of my project as a return, now underway for a decade, to the philosophical problems left over from the Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

Pragmatism and the Search for Coherence in Neuroscience

“…Cognitive predilections intermingle with endless social context (Kant, 1789;Kuhn, 1962;Hacking, 1966). Revolutionary science is a rare bird (Kuhn, 1962(Kuhn, , 2000. We seldom come to a new way of seeing that changes everything.…”

“…Of course, abduction is placed in a historical context, in which discovery and a culture of science has had to evolve (e.g. neuroscience; Kuhn, 2000;Sellars, 1962;Hanson, 1958Hanson, , 1971. Joint contact is a feature of our species, displayed even in basic actions, such as eye-gaze following (Moll and Tomasselo, 2007;Kagan, 1984).…”

Assessing legitimation in mixed research: a new framework

“…For instance, the difficulty in using qualitative techniques to test formally a theory that emerged from the qualitative phase might be addressed in a quantitative phase by using quantitative techniques. In contrast, statistically/practically significant relationships that are found in a quantitative phase might be explained more deeply Footnote 2 continued as conceptualized, developed, and critiqued by Kuhn (1970Kuhn ( , 1974Kuhn ( , 1996Kuhn ( , 2000-is used. Morgan (2007) discusses four versions of paradigms: (a) paradigm as a worldview (i.e.…”

Governance of sustainable transitions: about the 4(0) ways to change the world

“…Science can usually find a single and irrefutable answer to relatively 'simple', less open-ended questions that are conceptualised in a single way by the vast majority of humans (cf. [21,22]). However, there are also questions that deal with 'complex' situations, which have been termed 'trans-scientific' [23].…”