Real science what it is, and what it means

John Ziman

412 pages, parution le 25/10/2002

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Résumé

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.Contents

A peculiar institution
Basically, it's purely academic
Academic science
New modes of knowledge production
Community and communication
Universalism and unification
Disinterestedness and objectivity
Originality and novelty
Scepticism and the growth of knowledge
What then, can we believe?

Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Cambridge University Press
Auteur(s)	John Ziman
Parution	25/10/2002
Nb. de pages	412
Format	15 x 23
Couverture	Broché
Poids	702g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780521893107
ISBN13	978-0-521-89310-7