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Critical Notice: Scientific Civilization and Its Discontents: Further Reflections on the Science Wars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Keith Parsons
Keith Parsons*
Affiliation:
The University of Houston—Clear Lake
*
†Send requests for reprints to the author, Box #296, University of Houston—Clear Lake, 2700 Bay Area Boulevard, Houston, TX 77058; parsons@cl.uh.edu
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Abstract

This essay reviews two recent books commenting on, and contributing to, the “science wars.” In Who Rules in Science? James Robert Brown respectfully but firmly rejects the “nihilist” and the “naturalist” wings of social constructivism. He rejects attempts to debunk science in the name of a relativist or anarchist epistemology. He also criticizes the “strong programme” in the sociology of knowledge and its implied contrast between reasons and causes. In Prometheus Bedeviled Norman Levitt examines the cultural roots of current discontent with science. Levitt's analysis—and polemic—charges contemporary culture with a pervasive cheapening of intellectual standards.

Type
Review Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 69 , Issue 4 , December 2002 , pp. 645 - 651
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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