Real science: what it is, and what it means
Editorial CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
España peninsular
- Editorial CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
- ISBN13 9780521893107
- ISBN10 0521893100
- Tipo LIBRO
- Páginas 399
- Año de Edición 2002
- Idioma Inglés
- Encuadernación Rústica
Materias
Historia Y Filosofía De La CienciaReal science: what it is, and what it means
Editorial CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
España peninsular
Detalles del libro
Scientists and 'anti-scientists' alike need a more realistic image of science. The traditional mode of research, academic science, is not just a 'method': it is a distinctive culture, whose members win esteem and employment by making public their findings. Fierce competition for credibility is strictly regulated by established practices such as peer review. Highly specialized international communities of independent experts form spontaneously and generate the type of knowledge we call 'scientific' - systematic, theoretical, empirically tested, quantitative, and so on. Ziman shows that these familiar 'philosophical' features of scientific knowledge are inseparable from the ordinary cognitive capabilities and peculiar social relationships of its producers. This wide angled close-up of the natural and human sciences recognizes their unique value, whilst revealing the limits of their rationality, reliability and universal applicability. It also shows how, for better or worse, the new 'post-academic' research culture of teamwork, accountability, etc. is changing these supposedly eternal philosophical characteristics.