Rational Changes in Science

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Theoretical Considerations Concerning Rationality and Scientific Change

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. How Not to Talk About Conceptual Change in Science

      • Richard M. Burian

      Pages 3-33

   3. The Myth of the Framework

      • Karl Popper

      Pages 35-62

   4. A New View of Scientific Rationality

      • John Watkins

      Pages 63-82

   5. Science, Protoscience, and Pseudoscience

      • Raimo Tuomela

      Pages 83-101

   6. Methodology, Heuristics, and Rationality

      • Thomas Nickles

      Pages 103-132

3. Rational Scientific Changes

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 133-133

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   2. Galileo and Rationality: The Case of the Tides

      • Joseph C. Pitt

      Pages 135-153

   3. The Quest for Scientific Rationality: Some Historical Considerations

      • William R. Shea

      Pages 155-176

   4. The Rationality of Discovery: Galvani’s Animal Electricity

      • Marcello Pera

      Pages 177-201

   5. The Rationality of Entertainment and Pursuit

      • Rachel Laudan

      Pages 203-220

4. Back Matter

   Pages 221-227

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THE PROBLEMS OF SCIENTIFIC RATIONALITY Fashion is a fickle mistress. Only yesterday scientific rationality enjoyed considerable attention, consideration, and even reverence among phi­ losophers; "but today's fashion leads us to despise it, and the matron, rejected and abandoned as Hecuba, complains; modo maxima rerum, tot generis natisque potens - nunc trahor exui, inops", to cite Kant for our purpose, who cited Ovid for his. Like every fashion, ours also has its paradoxical aspects, as John Watkins correctly reminds in an essay in this volume. Enthusiasm for science was high among philosophers when significant scientific results were mostly a promise, it declined when that promise became an undeniable reality. Nevertheless, as with the decline of any fashion, even the revolt against scientific rationality has some reasonable grounds. If the taste of the philosophical community has changed so much, it is not due to an incident or a whim. This volume is not about the history of and reasons for this change. Instead, it provides a view of the new emerging image of scientific rationality in both its philosophical and historical aspects. In particular, the aim of the contributions gathered here is to focus on the concept around which the discussions about rationality have mostly taken place: scientific change.

• Galileo Galilei
• concept
• heuristics
• methodology
• rationality
• reason

• Department of Philosophy, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA

  Joseph C. Pitt

• Dipartimento di Filosofia, Università degli Studi di Pisa, Italy

  Marcello Pera

Policies and ethics