For centuries, inconsistencies were seen as a hindrance to good reasoning, and their role in the sciences was ignored. In recent years, however, logicians as well as philosophers and historians have showed a growing interest in the matter. Central to this change were the advent of paraconsistent logics, the shift in attention from finished theories to construction processes, and the recognition that most scientific theories were at some point either internally inconsistent or incompatible with other accepted findings. The new interest gave rise to important questions. How is `logical anarchy' avoided? Is it ever rational to accept an inconsistent theory? In what sense, if any, can inconsistent theories be considered as true?
The present collection of papers is the first to deal with this kind of questions. It contains case studies as well as philosophical analyses, and presents an excellent overview of the different approaches in the domain.

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Editors and Affiliations

Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Joke Meheus

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Inconsistency in Science
Editors: Joke Meheus
Series Title: Origins: Studies in the Sources of Scientific Creativity
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0085-6
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2002
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4020-0630-2Published: 31 May 2002
Softcover ISBN: 978-90-481-6023-5Published: 07 December 2010
eBook ISBN: 978-94-017-0085-6Published: 09 March 2013
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 223
Topics: Philosophy of Science, History, general, Logic

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

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