The Hungarian émigré Imre Lakatos (1922–1974) earned a worldwide reputation through the influential philosophy of science debates involving Thomas Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend, and Sir Karl Popper. In Imre Lakatos and the Guises of Reason John Kadvany shows that embedded in Lakatos’s English-language work is a remarkable historical philosophy rooted in his Hungarian past. Below the surface of his life as an Anglo-American philosopher of science and mathematics, Lakatos covertly introduced novel transformations of Hegelian and Marxist ideas about historiography, skepticism, criticism, and rationality. Lakatos escaped Hungary following the failed 1956 Revolution. Before then, he had been an influential Communist intellectual and was imprisoned for years by the Stalinist regime. He also wrote a lost doctoral thesis in the philosophy of science and participated in what was criminal behavior in all but a legal sense. Kadvany argues that this intellectual and political past animates Lakatos’s English-language philosophy, and that, whether intended or not, Lakatos integrated a penetrating vision of Hegelian ideas with rigorous analysis of mathematical proofs and controversial histories of science. Including new applications of Lakatos’s ideas to the histories of mathematical logic and economics and providing lucid exegesis of many of Hegel’s basic ideas, Imre Lakatos and the Guises of Reason is an exciting reconstruction of ideas and episodes from the history of philosophy, science, mathematics, and modern political history.
Imre Lakatos (1922-1974) was one of the protagonists in shaping the "new philosophy of science". More than 25 years after his untimely death, it is time for a critical re-evaluation of his ideas. His main theme of locating rationality within the scientific process appears even more compelling today, after many historical case studies have revealed the cultural and societal elements within scientific practices. Recently there has been, above all, an increasing interest in Lakatos' philosophy of mathematics, which emphasises heuristics and mathematical practice over logical justification. But suitable modifications of his approach are called for in order to make it applicable to modern axiomatised theories. Pioneering historical research in England and Hungary has unearthed hitherto unknown facts about Lakatos' personal life, his wartime activities and his involvement in the political developments of post-war Europe. From a communist activist committed to Györgyi Lukács' thinking, Lakatos developed into a staunch anti-Marxist who found his intellectual background in Popper's critical rationalism. The volume also publishes for the first time a part of his Debrecen Ph.D. thesis and it is concluded by a bibliography of his Hungarian writings.
Philosophers usually emphasize the importance of logic, clarity and reason. Therefore when they address political issues they will usually inject a dose of rationality in these discussions, right? Wrong. This book gives a lot of examples showing the unexpected level of political irrationality among leading contemporary philosophers. The body of the book presents a detailed analysis of extreme leftist views of a number of famous philosophers and their occasional descent into apology for—and occasionally even active participation in—totalitarian politics. Most of these episodes are either virtually unknown (even inside the philosophical community) or have received very little attention. The author tries to explain how it was possible that so many luminaries of twentieth-century philosophy, who invoked reason and exhibited rigor and careful thinking in their professional work, succumbed to irrationality and ended up supporting some of the most murderous political regimes and ideologies. The huge leftist bias in contemporary philosophy and its persistence over the years is certainly a factor but it is far from being the whole story. Interestingly, the indisputably high intelligence of these philosophers did not actually protect them from descending into political insanity. It is argued that, on the contrary, both their brilliance and the high esteem they enjoyed in the profession only made them more self-confident and less cautious, thereby eventually making them blind to their betrayal of reason and the monstrosity of the causes they defended.
In Philip K. Dick’s The Minority Report, ‘precogs’, who are imaginary individuals capable of seeing the future are relied upon to stop crime, with a consensus report synthesized from two of three precogs. When the protaganist is indicted for a future murder, he suspects a conspiracy and seeks out the “minority report,” detailing the suppressed testimony of the third precog. Science works a lot like this science fiction story. Contrary to the view that scientists in a field all share the same “paradigm,” as Thomas Kuhn famously argued, scientists support different, and competing, research programs. Statements of scientific consensus need to be actively synthesized from the work of different scientists. Not all scientific work will be equally credited by science as a whole. While this system works well enough for most purposes, it is possible for minority views to fail to get the hearing that they deserve. This book analyzes the support that should be given to minority views, reconsidering classic debates in science and technology studies and examining numerous case studies.
Education is a field sometimes beset by theories-of-the-day and with easy panaceas that overpromise the degree to which they can alleviate pressing educational problems. The two-volume Encyclopedia of Educational Theory and Philosophy introduces readers to theories that have stood the test of time and those that have provided the historical foundation for the best of contemporary educational theory and practice. Drawing together a team of international scholars, this invaluable reference examines the global landscape of all the key theories and the theorists behind them and presents them in the context needed to understand their strengths and weaknesses. In addition to interpretations of long-established theories, this work offers essays on cutting-edge research and concise, to-the-point definitions of key concepts, ideas, schools, and figures. Features: Over 300 signed entries by trusted experts in the field are organized into two volumes and overseen by a distinguished general editor and an international editorial board. Entries are followed by cross references and further reading suggestions. A Reader’s Guide groups entries thematically The Reader’s Guide, detailed index, and cross references combine for strong search-and-browse capabilities in the electronic version. Available in a choice of print or electronic formats, Encyclopedia of Educational Theory and Philosophy is an ideal reference for anyone interested in the roots of contemporary educational theory. Key Themes: Aims of Education Classic Premodern Philosophers, Theories, and Theorists Curriculum Educational Research, Evaluation, and Testing Equity, Rights, Social Stratification, and Citizenship Higher Education Learners, Learning, and Teaching Liberal Education Moral, Religious, Spiritual, and Social/Cultural Values Multiculturalism and Special Populations Organization of Schooling Philosophy of Science, Sociology of Science, and Epistemology Philosophy of Education: Feminist Perspectives Philosophy of Education: Nonwestern Traditions Philosophy of Education: The Analytic Tradition Philosophy of Education: The Continental Traditions Philosophy of Education: The Political Theory Tradition Philosophy of Education: The Pragmatic Tradition Progressive Education Psychological Orientation in Educational Theory Social Sciences Orientation in Educational Theory
. . . there are many first-rate contributions here. Those contributions make this collection valuable especially to readers who are already knowledgeable about the various areas in which the interests of philosophers and economists overlap. Daniel M. Hausman, Journal of Economic Methodology The Elgar Companion To Economics and Philosophy is a very good read. Every library should buy it now. John King, History of Economics Review The volume collects articles surveying developments in such related fields as economic methodology, ethics, epistemology, and social ontology. Many of the articles are forward-looking, and as such constitute substantive and original (and at times provocative) contributions to the literature. The volume as a whole is a success; the editors are to be congratulated for their efforts. Bruce J. Caldwell, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, US This Companion is called economics and philosophy but actually it is about the philosophy of economics and all the great questions in the subject are here. The weather in the philosophy of economics has been stormy lately and the climate continues to this day to be unsettled. Will the storms soon settle down to give way to calmer days? Read this excellent collection of informative papers in the field to stimulate your own answer to that question. Mark Blaug, University of London and University of Buckingham, UK The Elgar Companion to Economics and Philosophy aims to demonstrate exactly how these two important areas have always been linked, and to illustrate the key areas of overlap. The Companion is divided into distinct parts, each of which highlights a leading area of scholarly concern: political economy conceived as social philosophy; the methodology and epistemology of economics; and social ontology and the ontology of economics. The contributors are well-known and distinguished authors from a variety of disciplines, who have been invited both to survey and to provide a personal assessment of current and prospective future states of their respective areas of philosophical interest. Academics and students who have an interest in economics and philosophy, political philosophy and the history of ideas will find this book of great appeal, as will researchers working in the field and readers interested in the nature of the discipline of economics.
This text examines conspiracy theories and tackles paranoia as a style of debate within science, psychotherapy, and popular entertainment. A conspiracy theory emerges as a way to address the inadequacies of rational expertise and organization in the face of the changes that undermine them
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.
Although Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper debated the nature of science only once, the legacy of this encounter has dominated intellectual and public discussions on the topic ever since. Kuhn's relativistic vision of science as just another human activity, like art or philosophy, triumphed over Popper's more positivistic belief in revolutionary discoveries and the superiority of scientific provability. Steve Fuller argues that not only has Kuhn's dominance had an adverse impact on the field but both thinkers have been radically misinterpreted in the process.