Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-c9gpj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T07:15:59.532Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Laudan's Naturalistic Axiology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Karyn Freedman
Karyn Freedman*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
*
†Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto, 215 Huron Street, 9th Floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Doppelt (1986,1990), Siegel (1990), and Rosenberg (1996) argue that the pivotal feature of Laudan's normative naturalism, namely his axiology, lacks a naturalistic foundation. In this paper I show that this objection turns on a misunderstanding of Laudan's use of the term ‘naturalism’. Specifically, I argue that there are two important senses of naturalism running through Laudan's work. Once these two strands are made explicit, the objection raised by Doppelt and others simply disappears.

Type
Science and Values
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 66 , Issue S3: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1998 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers Sep., 1999 , 1999 , pp. S526 - S537
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‡

I wish to thank those who attended the PSA ‘98 session on ‘Science and Values—1’, and in particular Jim Brown, for the provocative discussion which followed the reading of this paper. I would also like to thank Ian Hacking and Cheryl Misak for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

References

Brown, James Robert (1989), The Rational and the Social. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Doppelt, Gerald (1986), “Relativism and the Reticulational Model of Scientific Rationality”, Synthese 69: 225–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doppelt, Gerald. (1990), “The Naturalist Conception of Methodological Standards in Science: A Critique”, Philosophy of Science 57: 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giere, Ronald N. (1984), “Toward a Unified Theory of Science”, in Cushing, James T., Delaney, C. F., and Gutting, Gary M. (eds.), Science and Reality. Notre Dame, IN: University of Note Dame Press, 5–31.Google Scholar
Giere, Ronald N. (1985), “Philosophy of Science Naturalized”, Philosophy of Science 52: 331–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giere, Ronald N. (1988), Explaining Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giere, Ronald N. (1989), “Scientific Rationality as Instrumental Rationality”, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 20: 377–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitcher, Philip (1992), “The Naturalists Return”, The Philosophical Review 101: 53–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitcher, Philip. (1993), The Advancement of Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kukla, Andre (1997), “Review: Beyond Positivism and Relativism,” British Journal of the Philosophy of Science 48: 447–454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laudan, Larry (1984), Science and Values. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Laudan, Larry. (1987), “Progress or Rationality? The Prospects for Normative Naturalism” American Philosophical Quarterly 24: 19–31.Google Scholar
Laudan, Larry. (1987b), “Relativism, Naturalism and Reticulation”, Synthese 71: 221–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laudan, Larry. (1988), “If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It”, British Journal of the Philosophy of Science 39: 369–375.Google Scholar
Laudan, Larry. (1990), “Normative Naturalism”, Philosophy of Science 57: 44–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laudan, Larry. (1990b), “Aim-Less Epistemology”, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 21, 2: 315–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laudan, Larry. (1996), Beyond Positivism and Relativism. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Leplin, Jarrett (1990), “Renormalizing Epistemology”, Philosophy of Science 57: 20–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, Alexander (1990), “Normative Naturalism and the Role of Philosophy”, Philosophy of Science 57: 34–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, Alexander. (1996), “A Field Guide to Recent Species of Naturalism”, British Journal of the Philosophy of Science 47: 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, Harvey (1990), “Laudan's Normative Naturalism”, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 21, 2: 295–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Worrall, John (1989), “Fix it and be Damned: A Reply to Laudan”, British Journal of the Philosophy of Science 40: 376–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar