Posted by Roger Critchlow-2 on Apr 11, 2013; 8:39pm URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/pluralism-in-science-tp7582640p7582643.html
On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 1:30 PM, Douglas Roberts <[hidden email]> wrote:
>> So not only do phenomena worth studying emerge at different levels of organization,
>> but the emerging phenomena at a level of organization are amenable to different disciplines of study
>> which may all be judged "scientific" by a philosopher of science.
This phrase struck me, and this will sound like a dumb question, but humor me: What is a philosopher of science? And what value do they provide? Serious question.
The author of the book is a faculty member at Stanford University who identifies as a philosopher of science. She wrote a book. She presumably teaches classes, writes scholarly articles, and reviews the writings of other scholars.
She identifies the different ways of studying human behavior as equally "scientific", while the popular science literature, the grant competition process, and the disciplines themselves tend to treat the alternatives as mutually exclusive possible truths, in a conflict from which one shall emerge triumphant.
So which question is the serious one? Taken together, you are expressing skepticism of philosophy by asking a question about values. That is as close to the origins of western philosophy as you can get without directly quoting Socrates.
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