Progress and Rationality in Science

Radnitzky, G. & G. Andersson & R.S. Cohen & Marx W. Wartofsky

ISBN 10: 902770922X / ISBN 13: 9789027709226

Published by D. Reidel, 1978

About this Item

Wear and discoloration to covers, marks on a few pages, otherwise solid, reading condition; Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Volume LVIII / Synthese Library, Volume 125; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 426 pages.

Seller Inventory # 219547

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Progress and Rationality in Science
• Publisher: D. Reidel
• Publication Date: 1978
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 902770922X
• ISBN 13: 9789027709226
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Fair

About this title

Synopsis

This collection of essays has evolved through the co-operative efforts, which began in the fall of 1974, of the participants in a workshop sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. The idea of holding one or more small colloquia devoted to the topics of rational choice in science and scientific progress originated in a conversation in the summer of 1973 between one of the editors (GR) and the late Imre Lakatos. Unfortunately Lakatos himself was never able to see this project through, but his thought-provoking methodology of scientific research programmes was ably expounded and defended by his successors. Indeed, this volume continues and deepens the debate inaugurated in Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (edited by Imre Lakatos and Alan Musgrave), a book which grew out of a conference held in 1965. That debate has continued during the years that have passed since that conference. The group of discussions about the place of rationality in science which have been held between those who emphasize the history of science (with Feyerabend and Kuhn as the most prominent exponents) and the critical rationalists (Popper and his followers), with Imre Lakatos defending a middle ground, these discussions were seen by almost all commentators as the most important event in the philosophy of science in the last decade. This problem area constituted the central theme of our Thyssen workshop. The workshop operated in the following manner.