- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: OUP USA (3 July 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0195106113
- ISBN-13: 978-0195106114
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.5 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
1,325,656 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #32 in Books > Reference > Other Reference By Subject > Philosophy
- #74 in Books > Science & Nature > History & Philosophy > Philosophy of Science > General
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A survey of the philosophy of science from positivism to social constructivism, this book focuses on the ontological implications of science. An innovative feature is the author's use of immunology as a source of descriptive examples, thus providing lively illustrations from a life science with universal appeal and allowing continuity throughout this volume. The coverage of Quinean holism and supervenience clarify concepts which have been often misunderstood, while the discussion of the Kuhnian model of science rectifies the distortions it underwent due to misuse in the past. Feminist and nonfeminist concepts of science, as well as social constructivist models are thoroughly investigated by Klee. The text includes a glossary defining over eighty key terms.
About the Author
Robert Klee is at Ithaca College.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
It has not always seemed reasonable to human beings to believe that the natural world is size layered in both directions. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
It has not always seemed reasonable to human beings to believe that the natural world is size layered in both directions. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to get up to speed on what has happened in the philosophy of science during the past three centuries. The author speaks in his own voice, which keeps the book interesting and engaging from start to finish. This is not a dry textbook. At the same time, the author clearly identifies where his own sympathies lie, and is very objective in his treatment of opposing views.
A couple of areas for improvement: The author mentions Kant's idea of noumena and phenomena on a few occasions in the book, but does not really discuss the Kantian idea of the "external world" any further. I wish he did. Also, the author seems to imply that we shouldn't be too hasty to let our philosophies be influenced by the results we find in quantum physics (presumably because they tend to be so bizarre and atypical). I would have liked the author to elaborate a bit more on this view. I think many people interested in the philosophy of science would argue the opposite: A good philosophy of science must necessarily accommodate the most perplexing and paradoxical scientific findings.
In summary, the book is definitely worthwhile, and I hope many scientists and non-scientists read it.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Klee is a prof. of philosophy at Ithaca College. He states somewhere near the end of the book that his perspective is that of holist realism.
Throughout this book he deals with the debate between realism and anti-realism, giving answers (a real apologetics) against anti-realist arguments (in particular against philosophers of nature such as Kuhn, Van Fraassen, Laudan.., and against postmoderns and feminists) In the conclusion of the book the author ends by stating his optistism for natural science which he by far sees as the highest achievement and hope.
I find this book valuable when taken as a book about the debate between realism/antirealism, or as a defense of realism. But I do not find it valuable as a introduction to the philosophy of "science". The author does not define what he means by "science" (this word used to mean something like "organized knowledge" and used to include theology, history, philosophy - it is only since about a century or more that the influence of positivism/kantianism in the anglo-Saxon world has reduced it to the modeling of natural or social patterns). Besides, he starts right away with positivism, , skipping thousands of years of science and philosophical debate (although he sometimes mentions some less recent authors), and continues with the 20th century debate about realism, letting many current issues aside.
I have nothing against the fact that the author defends realism so much, but then I expect him to be honest and clear. I think this book should have been called something like "An Introduction to the Philosophical Debate about the Objectivity of the Natural and Social Sciences: a Realist Perspective."
BTW, I sometimes had the impression the author is committed to materialism or even to scientism, but I may be wrong about this.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For newcomers and old hands engaged in the philosophy of science, Klee's book serves to frame the subject in a clear and coherent way. Klee uses immunology as his jumping-off point, rather than physics in order to frame the general areas of inquiry and disputes within the subject. This works quite well, even for those of us uninitiated in any serious way into esoteric immunological studies and its attendant lexicon. Klee touches on all the basics and revists elementary concepts in logic and philosophy that will be useful for the non-philosopher and general reader. There is a lucid discussion of the debates and disputes within the subject, such as between Kuhn and Popper, and Klee pays ample attention to other of the major figures, particularly those weighing in the realism/antirealism debate. Further,Introduction to Philosophy of Science will serve as one of those rare texts that can be called upon to fill in knowledge gaps and memory lapses in other areas in philosophy generally. While the subject matter can be arid and difficult to wade through, Klee's book is brilliantly written and fun to read. He makes no bones about his own realism, but is reasonably fair to anti-realist critics. Yet at times his loss of patience with those who take an anti-realist position bleeds through his prose, often in quite humorous ways. This books will be read and re-read by serious students of the subject and may become a standard text in the philosophy of science used in undergraduate and graduate pedagogy, as well it should.
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