Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xm8r8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-01T17:05:48.886Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Pluralism, Logical Empiricism, and the Problem of Pseudoscience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Abstract

I criticize conceptual pluralism, as endorsed recently by John Dupré and Philip Kitcher, for failing to supply strategies for demarcating science from non-science. Using creation-science as a test case, I argue that pluralism blocks arguments that keep creation-science in check and that metaphysical pluralism offers it positive, metaphysical support. Logical empiricism, however, still provides useful resources to reconfigure and manage the problem of creation-science in those practical and political contexts where pluralism will fail.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1998

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

Send requests for reprints to the author, 5246 N. Kenmore Ave., #1N, Chicago, IL 60640.

I would like to thank Giovanni Camardi, Nancy Cartwright, Jordi Cat, Hasok Chang, Richard Creath, Michael Davis, John Dupré, Stuart Glennan, Gerald Holton, David Hull, Philip Kitcher, Bob Ladenson, Greg Mikkelson, Alan Richardson, Jessica Riskin, Warren Schmaus, Jack Snapper, David Stump, Thomas Uebel, and three anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions about earlier versions of this paper.

References

Cartwright, Nancy, Cat, Jordi, Fleck, Lola, and Uebel, Thomas (1996), Otto Neurath: Philosophy between Science and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dupré, John (1993), The Disorder of Things: Metaphysical Foundations of the Disunity of Science. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Fine, Arthur (1986), The Shaky Game. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Holton, Gerald (1993), Science and Anti-Science. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Howard, Don (1996), “Philosophy of Science and Social Responsibility: Some Historical Reflections”, ms. read at Philosophy of Science Association annual meeting, Cleveland, Ohio, Nov. 1996.Google Scholar
Hull, David (1987), “Genealogical Actors in Ecological Roles”, Biology and Philosophy 2:168–184.Google Scholar
Kitcher, Philip (1982), Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kitcher, Philip (1989), “Some Puzzles About Species”, in Ruse, Michael (ed.), What the Philosophy of Biology Is. Dordrecht: Kluwer, pp. 183208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitcher, Philip (1993), The Advancement of Science. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Laudan, Larry (1996), “Science at the Bar—Causes for Concern”, in Ruse (ed.) (1996), 351355.Google Scholar
La Follette, Marcel C. (ed.) (1983), Creationism, Science, and the Law: the Arkansas Case. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Lewontin, Richard (1997), “Billions and Billions of Demons”, New York Review of Books January 9, 1997:28–32.Google Scholar
Neurath, Otto, Carnap, Rudolf, and Hahn, Hans (1929), “The Scientific Conception of the World: The Vienna Circle”, in Neurath 1973, 299319.Google Scholar
Neurath, Otto (1931), “Physicalism”, in Neurath 1983, 5257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neurath, Otto (1937), “Prognosen und Terminologie in Physik, Biologie, Soziologie”‘, Trauvauz du IX’ Congres International de Philosophie, IV. L'Unite de la Science: la methode et les methodes, Actualities Scientifiques et Industrielles, No. 533. Paris: Hermann & Cie, pp. 7785.Google Scholar
Neurath, Otto (1944), “Foundations of the Social Sciences”, International Encyclopedia of Unified Science v. 2, no. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 151.Google Scholar
Neurath, Otto (1973), Empiricism and Sociology. Marie Neurath and Robert S. Cohen (eds). Translated by M. Neurath and Paul Foulkes. Boston: Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neurath, Otto (1983), Philosophical Papers: 1913–1946. R. S. Cohen and M. Neurath (eds. and trans). Boston: Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reisch, George (1994), “Planning Science: Otto Neurath and the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science”, International Encyclopedia of Unified Science 27:153–175.Google Scholar
Reisch, George (1995), “A History of the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science”, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Reisch, George (1997a), “How Postmodern was Neurath's Idea of Unity of Science?Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 28:439–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reisch, George (1997b), “Economist, Epistemologist … and Censor?: On Otto Neurath's Index Verborum Prohibitorum”, Perspectives on Science.Google Scholar
Ruse, Michael (1996), “Pro Judice”, in M. Ruse (ed.) (1996), 356362.Google Scholar
Ruse, Michael (ed.) (1996), But Is It Science? The Philosophical Question in the Creationl Evolution Controversy. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.Google Scholar
Russell, Bertrand (1940), An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth. London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd.Google Scholar
Sorell, Tom (1991), Scientism: Philosophy and the Infatuation with Science. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Stanford, P. Kyle (1995), “For Pluralism and Against Realism About Species”, Philosophy of Science 62:70–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uebel, Thomas (1991), “Neurath's Programme for Naturalistic Epistemology”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 22:623–646.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uebel, Thomas (1992), Overcoming Logical Positivism from Within: The Emergence of Neurath's Naturalism in the Vienna Circle's Protocol Sentence Debate. Atlanta: Rodopi.CrossRefGoogle Scholar