Customer Reviews

Science and Relativism: Some Key Controversies in the Philosophy of Science (Science and Its Conceptual Foundations series)

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The book is structured as a transcript of a debate between philosophers attending a symposium on the role of science and relativism; each represents one of the major epistemic positions -- logical positivism, pragmatism, realism, and relativism. They don't come to a unified conclusion, of course -- what else would you expect from philosophers? -- but in the process of the discussion, a lot of core issues in modern epistemology are covered in a way easily accessible to a layman. The discussion is generally framed in terms of relativistic position on various epistemic issues, and each opposing philosophical scheme's counter to such.

This book is the best introduction to modern epistemology that I have ever read. It is relatively small, which is a blessing, even though the writing is simple as far as philosophical texts go; and it is deep enough to both inform, and stimulate further meaningful inquiry. I would stongly recommend this book to anyone approaching epistemology and philosophy of science for the first time.

This book provides an excellent introduction to debates in the philosophy of science. Laudan constructs a four-way conversation among positivists, realists, pragmatists and relativists. The core of the debate lies in the three empiricists confronting the relativist, and this is the most successful part of the book. The differences among the three non-relativists get somewhat short shift. In particular, the presentation of differences between positivists and realists is not sharp; the differences between pragmatists and the positivists/realists only gradually emerge in the second half of the book.

Laudan is himself a pragmatist, and the point of the conversation is to bring you around to this position. As a pragmatist before I read this book, I was naturally sympathetic with his position. Laudan makes his case well, while taking seriously the positions of other positions.

Though introducing some sophisticated debates, Laudan presents this material very clearly. This book should be accessible to undergraduates in many fields, and to a general college-educated readership.

This very esoteric book is obviously not for the layperson, so it should be evaluated for how well it connects with its intended audience - philosophers of science and students thereof. The first segment of this audience will be inspired (positively or negatively), but the second segment will not. Here Larry Laudan has advanced the relativist school of the philosophy of science via a rather unique use of the old Greek dialogue, with a fictional discussion among four characters that are composites of various influential philosophers. Here the conversationalists are Pragmatist, Positivist, Realist, and Relativist in a discussion at a fanciful conference on epistemic relativism and scientific knowledge. Granted, this method is considerably effective in advancing how the four schools of thought would approach the issue. But alas, such is the state of modern philosophy that even fictional philosophers are dry and pedantic. It's a very odd fantasy in which the characters argue for dozens of pages over pathologically obsessive theoretical minutiae and the author makes no attempt at connecting with the outside world. Here the fictional philosophers, just like many real philosophers, fail to make any impact with the people they study or those they claim to teach. Consequently, despite his rather unique writing method it is difficult to determine what point Laudan is trying to make about his school of relativism, because the book's conversationalists reach no conclusions and merely blame each other for failing to have all the answers about the state of human knowledge. Once again, just like real philosophers, who can do little more than argue for years about things that the real world left behind long ago. [~doomsdayer520~]