Scientific perspectivism [electronic resource] /
Ronald N. Giere.
- University of Chicago Press, 2006.
- 1 online resource (151 p., [8] p. of plates) : ill. (some col.)
Includes bibliographical references (p. [137]-146) and index.
1. SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE. What is the problem? -- Objective realism -- Constructivism -- Naturalism -- Perspectivism -- Retrospect. 2. COLOR VISION. Introduction -- Basic color science -- Color subjectivism -- Color objectivism -- Comparative color vision -- Color perspectivism -- The philosophy of color -- A final question. 3. SCIENTIFIC OBSERVING. Introduction -- Astronomy in color -- Deep space from the perspective of the hubble telescope -- The Milky Way in gamma ray perpsectives -- Conclusions within perspectives -- Imaging the brain -- Instrumental perspectives. 4. SCIENTIFIC THEORIZING. Introduction -- Representing -- Theories -- Laws of nature -- Fitness -- Maps -- Truth within a perspective -- Perspectives and paradigms -- Scientific kinds -- Perspective realism -- The contingency thesis revisited.
Many people assume that the claims of scientists are objective truths. But historians, sociologists, and philosophers of science have long argued that scientific claims reflect the particular historical, cultural, and social context in which those claims were made. The nature of scientific knowledge is not absolute because it is influenced by the practice and perspective of human agents. Scientific Perspectivism argues that the acts of observing and theorizing are both perspectival, and this nature makes scientific knowledge contingent, as Thomas Kuhn theorized forty years ago. Using the examp.