A Nice Derangement of Epistemes: Post-positivism in the Study of Science from Quine to Latour

Zammito, John H.

ISBN 10: 0226978621 / ISBN 13: 9780226978628

Published by University of Chicago Press, 2004

About this Item

Seller Inventory # BCV.0226978621.N

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Nice Derangement of Epistemes: Post-positivism in the Study of Science from Quine to Latour
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226978621
• ISBN 13: 9780226978628
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Since the 1950s, many philosophers of science have attacked positivism—the theory that scientific knowledge is grounded in objective reality. Reconstructing the history of these critiques, John H. Zammito argues that while so-called postpositivist theories of science are very often invoked, they actually provide little support for fashionable postmodern approaches to science studies.

Zammito shows how problems that Quine and Kuhn saw in the philosophy of the natural sciences inspired a turn to the philosophy of language for resolution. This linguistic turn led to claims that science needs to be situated in both historical and social contexts, but the claims of recent "science studies" only deepened the philosophical quandary. In essence, Zammito argues that none of the problems with positivism provides the slightest justification for denigrating empirical inquiry and scientific practice, delivering quite a blow to the "discipline" postmodern science studies.

Filling a gap in scholarship to date, A Nice Derangement of Epistemes will appeal to historians, philosophers, philosophers of science, and the broader scientific community.

About the Author

John H. Zammito is the John Antony Weir Professor of History at Rice University. He is the author, most recently, of Kant, Herder, and the Birth of Anthropology and of The Genesis of Kant's Critique of Judgment, both published by the University of Chicago Press.