Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vpsfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-25T02:44:23.936Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Discussion: Siegel on the Rationality of Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Brian S. Baigrie*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy The University of Calgary

Abstract

Harvey Siegel's (1985) attempts to revive the traditional epistemological formulation of the rationality of science. Contending that “a general commitment to evidence” is constitutive of method and rationality in science, Siegel advances its compatibility with specific, historically attuned formulations of principles of evidential support as a virtue of his aprioristic candidate for science's rationality. In point of fact, this account is compatible with virtually any formulation of evidential support, which runs afoul of Siegel's claim that scientific beliefs must be evaluated with respect to their rationality. The unwelcome consequence of Siegel's view is that most any belief, scientific or pseudoscientific, can be defended as rational. Indeed, if we want to furnish a warrant for rational choice, we must turn to the very historically informed principles of evidential support that are dismissed by Siegel as providing a misleading portrait of science's rationality.

Type
Discussion
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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

I am grateful for comments from anonymous referees which improved my argument considerably.

References

REFERENCES

Kitcher, P. (1982), Abusing Science. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Laudan, L. (1983), “Commentary on Ruse: Science at the Bar—Causes for Concern”, in M. C. LaFollette (ed.), Creationism, Science and the Law: The Arkansas Case. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Popper, K. (1963), “Science: Conjectures and Refutations”, in Conjectures and Refutations. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Siegel, H. (1985), “What is the Question Concerning the Rationality of Science?Philosophy of Science 52: 517537.10.1086/289273CrossRefGoogle Scholar