Integrating History and Philosophy of Science

Integrating History and Philosophy of Science

Author: Seymour Mauskopf

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2011-09-06

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 9400717458

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Though the publication of Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions seemed to herald the advent of a unified study of the history and philosophy of science, it is a hard fact that history of science and philosophy of science have increasingly grown apart. Recently, however, there has been a series of workshops on both sides of the Atlantic (called '&HPS') intended to bring historians and philosophers of science together to discuss new integrative approaches. This is therefore an especially appropriate time to explore the problems with and prospects for integrating history and philosophy of science. The original essays in this volume, all from specialists in the history of science or philosophy of science, offer such an exploration from a wide variety of perspectives. The volume combines general reflections on the current state of history and philosophy of science with studies of the relation between the two disciplines in specific historical and scientific cases.


The Philosophy of Historical Case Studies

The Philosophy of Historical Case Studies

Author: Tilman Sauer

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-05-24

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 3319302299

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This volume collects reflections on the role of philosophy in case studies in the history of science. Case studies have played a prominent role in recent history and philosophy of science. They have been used to illustrate, question, explore, or explicate philosophical points of view. Even if not explicitly so, historical narratives are always guided by philosophical background assumptions. But what happens if different philosophies lead to different narratives of the same historical episodes? Can historical case studies decide between competing philosophical viewpoints? What are the criteria that a case study has to fulfill in order to be philosophically relevant? Bringing together leading practitioners in the fields of history and philosophy of the physical and the life sciences, this volume addresses this methodological problem and proposes ways of rendering explicit philosophical assumptions of historical work.


Evidence and Meaning

Evidence and Meaning

Author: Jörn Rüsen

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2017-05-01

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9781785335389

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As one of the premier historical thinkers of his generation, Jörn Rüsen has made enormous contributions to the methods and theoretical framework of history as it is practiced today. In Evidence and Meaning, Rüsen surveys the seismic changes that have shaped the historical profession over the last half-century, while offering a clear, economical account of his theory of history. To traditional historiography Rüsen brings theoretical insights from philosophy, narrative theory, cultural studies, and the social sciences, developing an intricate but robust model of “historical thinking” as both a cognitive discipline and a cultural practice—one that is susceptible neither to naïve empiricism nor radical relativism.


Turkish Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science

Turkish Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science

Author: G. Irzik

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2005-11-10

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 1402033338

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As an academic discipline, the philosophy and history of science in Turkey was marked by two historical events: Hans Reichenbach's immigrating to Turkey and taking a post between 1933 and 1938 at Istanbul University prior to his tenure at UCLA, and Aydin Sayili's establishing a chair in the history of science in 1952 after having become the first student to receive a Ph.D. under George Sarton at Harvard University. Since then, both disciplines have flourished in Turkey. The present book, which contains seventeen newly commissioned articles, aims to give a rich overview of the current state of research by Turkish philosophers and historians of science. Topics covered address issues in methodology, causation, and reduction, and include philosophy of logic and physics, philosophy of psychology and language, and Ottoman science studies. The book also contains an unpublished interview with Maria Reichenbach, Hans Reichenbach's wife, which sheds new light on Reichenbach's academic and personal life in Istanbul and at UCLA.


New Contributions to the Philosophy of History

New Contributions to the Philosophy of History

Author: Daniel Little

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2010-08-05

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9048194105

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Insights developed in the past two decades by philosophers of the social sciences can serve to enrich the challenging intellectual tasks of conceptualizing, investigating, and representing the human past. Likewise, intimate engagement with the writings of historians can deepen philosophers’ understanding of the task of knowing the past. This volume brings these perspectives together and considers fundamental questions, such as: What is historical causation? What is a large historical structure? How can we best conceptualize “mentalities” and “identities”? What is involved in understanding the subjectivity of historical actors? What is involved in arriving at an economic history of a large region? How are actions and outcomes related? The arguments touch upon a wide range of historical topics -- the Chinese and French Revolutions, the extension of railroads in the nineteenth century, and the development of agriculture in medieval China.


Tool and Object

Tool and Object

Author: Ralph Krömer

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2007-06-25

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 3764375248

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Category theory is a general mathematical theory of structures and of structures of structures. It occupied a central position in contemporary mathematics as well as computer science. This book describes the history of category theory whereby illuminating its symbiotic relationship to algebraic topology, homological algebra, algebraic geometry and mathematical logic and elaboratively develops the connections with the epistemological significance.


Classical Philosophy

Classical Philosophy

Author: Peter Adamson

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014-06

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0199674531

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Readership: Anyone interested in philosophy, the history of ideas, or the ancient Greek world


Materialist Philosophy of History

Materialist Philosophy of History

Author: Branko Mitrovic´

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2020-07-08

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1793620016

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What does it mean for our understanding of history if we assume that everything is physical and that no immaterial entities, forces, or phenomena exist? A Materialist Philosophy of History: A Realist Antidote to Postmodernism examines the implications of a materialist worldview in contemporary philosophy of history. Materialism has wide-ranging consequences for historical research as well as for the credibility of various conceptions of the historical past. Branko Mitrović shows how these implications pertain both to the nature of social institutions and the capacities of historical figures to decide, act, acquire beliefs, and communicate and to the methodology of historical research and problems, such as the interpretation and the translation of historical documents. A materialist view also entails rejecting the view that forces such as culture, language, or society can construct physical reality or that the historical past is constructed through the work of the historian. This book examines these consequences and presents a comprehensive materialist perspective on historical research and the understanding of the historical past.


Justifying Historical Descriptions

Justifying Historical Descriptions

Author: C. Behan McCullagh

Publisher: CUP Archive

Published: 1984-10-25

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9780521318303

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In common with history, all the social sciences crucially rely on descriptions of the past for their evidence. But when, if ever, is it reasonable to regard such descriptions as true? This book attempts to establish the conditions that warrant belief in historical descriptions. It does so in a non-technical way, analysing numerous illustrations of the different kinds of argument about the past employed by historians and others. The author concludes that no historical description can be finally proved, and that we are only ever justified in believing them for certain practical purposes. This central question has not been addressed in such a thorough and systematic manner before. It draws on recent philosophy of history and will interest philosophers. But the wealth of material and accessibility of the presentation will also make it very valuable for historians and other social scientists concerned with the logic of their disciplines.