The Scenes of Inquiry: On the Reality of Questions in the Sciences
Nicholas Jardine
Abstract
This book advocates a radical shift of concern in philosophical, historical, and sociological studies of the sciences — from answers and doctrines to questions and problems — and explores the consequences of such a shift. This book is at once naturalistic and historicist: naturalistic in considering the philosophy of the sciences, in particular as it relates to questions concerning the methods of the sciences and their justifications, to be continuous with the sciences themselves; naturalistic in connecting reality and truth in the sciences with the procedures and outcomes of scientific inquir ... More
This book advocates a radical shift of concern in philosophical, historical, and sociological studies of the sciences — from answers and doctrines to questions and problems — and explores the consequences of such a shift. This book is at once naturalistic and historicist: naturalistic in considering the philosophy of the sciences, in particular as it relates to questions concerning the methods of the sciences and their justifications, to be continuous with the sciences themselves; naturalistic in connecting reality and truth in the sciences with the procedures and outcomes of scientific inquiry; historicist in taking as the basis of sound historical interpretation awareness of past material and social conditions, together with sensitivity to past agents' own modes of interpretation; historicist in holding all questions, categories, and meanings to be historicist constructs; and historicist in taking history to be the primary domain of reflection and criticism for all disciplines.
Keywords:
mythology,
reality,
historical reflection,
sciences,
truth,
doctrines
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2000 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198250395 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2011 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198250395.001.0001 |