Rescuing Reason : A Critique of Anti-Rationalist Views of Science and Knowledge

R. Nola

ISBN 10: 1402010427 / ISBN 13: 9781402010422

Published by Springer, Springer, 2003

About this Item

Druck auf Anfrage Neuware - Printed after ordering - Do knowledge and science arise from the application of canons of rationality and scientific method Or is all our scientific knowledge caused by socio-political factors, or by our interests in the socio-political - the view of sociologists of 'knowledge' Or does it result from interplay of relations of power - the view of Michel Foucault Or does our knowledge arise from 'the will to power' - the view of Nietzsche This volume sets out to critically examine the theses of those who would debunk the idea of rational explanation.The book is wide-ranging. The theories of method of Quine, Kuhn, Feyerabend (amongst others) are discussed and related to the views of Marx, Foucault, Wittgenstein and Nietzsche as well as sociologists of science such as Mannheim and Bloor. The author provides a wide interpretative framework which links the doctrines espoused by many of these authors; it is argued that they inherit many of the difficulties in the Strong Programme in the sociology of 'knowledge', and that they fail to reconcile the normativity of knowledge with their naturalism. It is argued that neither relativists, sceptics, nihilists, sociologists of 'knowledge' nor the postmodernists successfully debunk the claims of rational explanation, far from it: these theorists presuppose much of the theory of methodology they deny.

Seller Inventory # 9781402010422

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rescuing Reason : A Critique of Anti-Rationalist Views of Science and Knowledge
• Publisher: Springer, Springer
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1402010427
• ISBN 13: 9781402010422
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 241W x 160H x 37D millimeters 241 millimeters width by 160 millimeters height by 37 millimeters depth
• Weight: 1039 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Do knowledge and science arise from the application of canons of rationality and scientific method? Or is all our scientific knowledge caused by socio-political factors, or by our interests in the socio-political - the view of sociologists of "knowledge"? Or does it result from interplay of relations of power - the view of Michel Foucault? Or does our knowledge arise from "the will to power" - the view of Nietzsche? This volume sets out to critically examine the theses of those who would debunk the idea of rational explanation.

The book is wide-ranging. The theories of method of Quine, Kuhn, Feyerabend (amongst others) are discussed and related to the views of Marx, Foucault, Wittgenstein and Nietzsche as well as sociologists of science such as Mannheim and Bloor. The author provides a wide interpretative framework which links the doctrines espoused by many of these authors; it is argued that they inherit many of the difficulties in the Strong Programme in the sociology of "knowledge", and that they fail to reconcile the normativity of knowledge with their naturalism. It is argued that neither relativists, sceptics, nihilists, sociologists of "knowledge" nor the postmodernists successfully debunk the claims of rational explanation, far from it: these theorists presuppose much of the theory of methodology they deny.