Reason and the Search for Knowledge

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xlv

   PDF

2. Critical Papers

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Philosophy and the Analysis of Language

      • Dudley Shapere

      Pages 3-25

   3. Mathematical Ideals and Metaphysical Concepts

      • Dudley Shapere

      Pages 26-36

   4. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

      • Dudley Shapere

      Pages 37-48

   5. The Paradigm Concept

      • Dudley Shapere

      Pages 49-57

   6. Meaning and Scientific Change

      • Dudley Shapere

      Pages 58-101

   7. Notes Toward a Post-Positivistic Interpretation of Science, Part I

      • Dudley Shapere

      Pages 102-119

3. Analyses of Issues

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 121-121

      PDF

   2. Space, Time, and Language

      • Dudley Shapere

      Pages 123-155

   3. Interpretations of Science in America

      • Dudley Shapere

      Pages 156-166

   4. Unity and Method in Contemporary Science

      • Dudley Shapere

      Pages 167-181

   5. What Can the Theory of Knowledge Learn from the History of Knowledge?

      • Dudley Shapere

      Pages 182-202

4. Toward a Systematic Philosophy of Science

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 203-203

      PDF

   2. The Character of Scientific Change

      • Dudley Shapere

      Pages 205-260

   3. The Scope and Limits of Scientific Change

      • Dudley Shapere

      Pages 261-272

   4. Scientific Theories and Their Domains

      • Dudley Shapere

      Pages 273-319

   5. Remarks on the Concepts of Domain and Field

      • Dudley Shapere

      Pages 320-324

   6. Alteration of Goals and Language in the Development of Science

      • Dudley Shapere

      Pages 325-341

   7. The Concept of Observation in Science and Philosophy

      • Dudley Shapere

      Pages 342-351

An impressive characteristic of Dudley Shapere's studies in the philosophy of the sciences has been his dogged reasonableness. He sorts things out, with logical care and mastery of the materials, and with an epistemological curiosity for the historical happenings which is both critical and respectful. Science changes, and the philosopher had better not link philosophical standards too tightly to either the latest orthodox or the provocative up­ start in scientific fashions; and yet, as critic, the philosopher must not only master the sciences but also explicate their meanings, not those of a cognitive never-never land. Neither dreamer nor pedant, Professor Shapere has been able to practice the modern empiricist's exercises with the sober and stimulat­ ing results shown in this volume: he sees that he can be faithful to philosoph­ ical analysis, engage in the boldest 'rational reconstruction' of theories and experimental measurements, and faithful too, empirically faithful we may say, to both the direct super-highways and the winding pathways of conceptual evolutions and metaphysical revolutions. Not least, Shapere listens! To Einstein and Calileo of course, but to the workings of the engineers and the scientific apprentices too, and to the various philosophers, now and of old, who have also worked to make sense of what has been learned and how that has happened and where we might go wrong.

• Interpretation
• concept
• evolution
• history
• history of literature
• interpret
• issue
• knowledge
• philosophy
• philosophy of science
• reason
• space
• structure
• time
• tradition

• Wake Forest University, USA

  Dudley Shapere

Policies and ethics