Evolution and the naked truth : a Darwinian approach to philosophy
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Evolution and the naked truth : a Darwinian approach to philosophy
(Avebury series in philosophy)
Ashgate Pub., c1998
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The main aim of this book is to use a naturalistic, evolutionary approach to solve some of the most important problems in philosophy. The first two problems come from the philosophy of science: the problem of rationality of science and the problem of truth in science. In presenting the first problem, the author argues that the views of Kuhn and Feyerabend do create a very serious challenge to traditional epistemology, however, if the assumption of individual rationality is abandoned in favour of the author's social concept of rationality, a committed naturalism can account for science as a rational activity. In tackling the second problem of truth, the author shows that a committed evolutionary philosophy does not support realism but leads instead to a thorough evolutionary relativism of scientific knowledge. It is nevertheless possible to use this evolutionary relativism to construct a theory of relative truth. The issue of whether science discovers truth has also been tied to absolutism, that a well formulated theory of relative truth is likely to bring about a profound transformation of the way we think about the field.
The author explores the notion of relative truth in the philosophy of science, ethics and aesthetics.
Table of Contents
- Part 1 Evolutionary relativism: evolution and the naked truth
- extraterrestrial and human science
- Bohr and evolutionary relativism
- cultural relativism and universalism
- a note on margolis. Part 2 Evolution and rationality: the connection between evolution and tha nature of scientific knowledge
- towards a future epistemology of science
- Hull, biology and epistemology
- science as part of nature. Part 3 From epistemology to ethics: evolution and justification
- the morality of rational ants
- a naturalistic account of free will. Part 4 Application to space science: a philosopher looks at space exploration
- pecking orders and rhetoric in science
- SETI, self-reproducing machines, and impossibilty proofs. Appendices on Feyerabend: science in Feyerabend's free society
- a rehabilitation of Paul Feyerabend.
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