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Pluralism or Relativism?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Gideon Freudenthal
Gideon Freudenthal
Affiliation:
The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and IdeasTel Aviv University
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Extract

Elkana's paper “Two-Tier Thinking” (1978) contains the thesis that became the foundation of all his later work. This thesis is best summarized by the author himself:

The thesis of this paper is that this distinction [between realists and relativists] is not a logical necessity but a historical situation in Western scientific culture. It is claimed here that the distinction is spurious: every problem has a realist and a relativist dimension, and the two views can be, and are actually being, held simultaneously. Once a frame of reference has been selected, in it realism prevails. With respect to selection of an appropriate framework the approach has to be relativist since there is no absolute, external-to-all framework which would fit absolute realism. (Elkana 1978, 309)

Type
Homage to Yehuda Elkana
Information
Science in Context , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , Summer 1996 , pp. 151 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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