Exceeding Our Grasp

Download or Read eBook Exceeding Our Grasp PDF written by P. Kyle Stanford and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-04-14 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle.
Exceeding Our Grasp
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 249
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780198038801
ISBN-13 : 0198038801
Rating : 4/5 (01 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Exceeding Our Grasp by : P. Kyle Stanford

Book excerpt: The incredible achievements of modern scientific theories lead most of us to embrace scientific realism: the view that our best theories offer us at least roughly accurate descriptions of otherwise inaccessible parts of the world like genes, atoms, and the big bang. In Exceeding Our Grasp, Stanford argues that careful attention to the history of scientific investigation invites a challenge to this view that is not well represented in contemporary debates about the nature of the scientific enterprise. The historical record of scientific inquiry, Stanford suggests, is characterized by what he calls the problem of unconceived alternatives. Past scientists have routinely failed even to conceive of alternatives to their own theories and lines of theoretical investigation, alternatives that were both well-confirmed by the evidence available at the time and sufficiently serious as to be ultimately accepted by later scientific communities. Stanford supports this claim with a detailed investigation of the mid-to-late 19th century theories of inheritance and generation proposed in turn by Charles Darwin, Francis Galton, and August Weismann. He goes on to argue that this historical pattern strongly suggests that there are equally well-confirmed and scientifically serious alternatives to our own best theories that remain currently unconceived. Moreover, this challenge is more serious than those rooted in either the so-called pessimistic induction or the underdetermination of theories by evidence, in part because existing realist responses to these latter challenges offer no relief from the problem of unconceived alternatives itself. Stanford concludes by investigating what positive account of the spectacularly successful edifice of modern theoretical science remains open to us if we accept that our best scientific theories are powerful conceptual tools for accomplishing our practical goals, but abandon the view that the descriptions of the world around us that they offer are therefore even probably or approximately true.


Exceeding Our Grasp Related Books

Exceeding Our Grasp
Language: en
Pages: 249
Authors: P. Kyle Stanford
Categories: Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-04-14 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The incredible achievements of modern scientific theories lead most of us to embrace scientific realism: the view that our best theories offer us at least rough
Exceeding Our Grasp
Language: en
Pages: 248
Authors: P. Kyle Stanford
Categories: Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-04-14 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The incredible achievements of modern scientific theories lead most of us to embrace scientific realism: the view that our best theories offer us at least rough
Darwin's Pious Idea
Language: en
Pages: 563
Authors: Conor Cunningham
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-12-03 - Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

According to British scholar Conor Cunningham, the debate today between religion and evolution has been hijacked by extremists: on one side stand fundamentalist
The Instrument of Science
Language: en
Pages: 216
Authors: Darrell P. Rowbottom
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-03-25 - Publisher: Routledge

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Roughly, instrumentalism is the view that science is primarily, and should primarily be, an instrument for furthering our practical ends. It has fallen out of f
The Atlantic Monthly
Language: en
Pages: 912
Authors:
Categories: American essays
Type: BOOK - Published: 1907 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK