Description
Book SynopsisSweeping 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.
Table of ContentsNeither Sacred nor a Confidence Trick: The Critical Common-Sensist Manifesto; Nail Soup: A Brief, Opinionated History of the old Deferentialism; Clues to the Puzzle of Scientific Evidence: A More-So Story; The Long-Arm of Common Sense: Instead of a Theory of Scientific Method; Realistically Speaking: How Science Fumbles, and Sometimes Forges Ahead; The Same, Only Different: Integrating the Intentional; A Modest Proposal: The Sensible Program in Sociology of Science; Stronger Than Fiction: Science, Literature and the "Literature of Science"; Entangled in the Bramble-Bush: Science in the Law; Point of Honour: On Science and Religion; What Man Can Achieve When He Really Puts His Mind to it: The Value and the Values of Science; Not Till It's Over: Reflections on the End of Science; Bibliography; Index.
