Science and Society

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxi

   PDF

2. Introduction: Science in Its Social Setting

   • Joseph Agassi

   Pages 1-17

3. The Present State of the Philosophy of Science

   • Joseph Agassi

   Pages 18-32

4. Was Wittgenstein Really Necessary?

   • Joseph Agassi

   Pages 33-44

5. Epistemology as an Aid to Science

   • Joseph Agassi

   Pages 45-54

6. Externalism

   • Joseph Agassi

   Pages 55-67

7. The Autonomy of Science

   • Joseph Agassi

   Pages 68-76

8. The Legitimation of Science

   • Joseph Agassi

   Pages 77-84

9. Sociologism in Philosophy of Science

   • Joseph Agassi

   Pages 85-103

10. Revolutions in Science, Occasional or Permanent?

    • Joseph Agassi

    Pages 104-118

11. Cultural Lag in Science

    • Joseph Agassi

    Pages 119-131

12. Storage and Communication of Knowledge

    • Joseph Agassi

    Pages 132-141

13. The Economics of Scientific Publications

    • Joseph Agassi

    Pages 142-155

14. Revising the Referee System

    • Joseph Agassi

    Pages 156-163

15. Scientific Schools and Their Success

    • Joseph Agassi

    Pages 164-191

16. Genius in Science

    • Joseph Agassi

    Pages 192-209

17. Scientists as Sleepwalkers

    • Joseph Agassi

    Pages 210-222

18. The Logic of Scientific Inquiry

    • Joseph Agassi

    Pages 223-238

19. The Choice of Scientific Problems

    • Joseph Agassi

    Pages 239-252

20. Between Metaphysics and Methodology

    • Joseph Agassi

    Pages 253-261

"If a science has to be supported by fraudulent means, let it perish. " With these words of Kepler, Agassi plunges into the actual troubles and glories of science (321). The SOciology of science is no foreign intruder upon scientific knowledge in these essays, for we see clearly how Agassi transforms the tired internalistJexternalist debate about the causal influences in the history of science. The social character of the entire intertwined epistemological and practical natures of the sciences is intrinsic to science and itself split: the internal sociology within science, the external sociology of the social setting without. Agassi sees these social matters in the small as well as the large: from the details of scientific communication, changing publishing as he thinks to 'on-demand' centralism with less waste (Ch. 12), to the colossal tension of romanticism and rationality in the sweep of historical cultures. Agassi is a moral and political philosopher of science, defending, dis­ turbing, comprehending, criticizing. For him, science in a society requires confrontation, again and again, with issues of autonomy vs. legitimation as the central problem of democracy. And furthermore, devotion to science, pace Popper, Polanyi, and Weber, carries preoccupational dangers: Popper's elitist rooting out of 'pseudo-science', Weber's hard-working obsessive . com­ mitment to science. See Agassi's Weberian gloss on the social psychology of science in his provocative 'picture of the scientist as maniac' (437).

• Galileo Galilei
• Renaissance
• history of science
• science
• sociology

• Boston University, USA

  Joseph Agassi

• Tel-Aviv University, Israel

  Joseph Agassi

Policies and ethics