Life Sciences

Thomas Kuhn has been criticized for espousing a theory of scientific development inconsistent with the "natural" view that successive scientific theories draw closer and closer to the truth. The alleged problem with Kuhn's account is that it depends on an incorrect account of scientific language. Further, some critics have claimed that the natural view of scientific progress can be vindicated if scientific language is understood in terms of the causal theory of reference.
In this paper, I argue that such efforts to uphold the natural view of progress fail. The problem with current versions of the causal theory is that they leave us with no way of classifying episodes in the history of science as progressive. Advocates of the causal theory have tried enriching the basic account with maxims like the principle of charity or the principle of humanity. However, I show that these principles are unsuited to the tasks for which they were intended. Finally, I show that accounts of scientific language like those built on the causal theory of reference need to be informed by empirical psychology in order to serve in our classification of historical episodes as progressive or not. But to strengthen an account of language in this way is, in a sense, to abandon the program of antipsychologism prevalent in the philosophy of language since Frege.

I want to look at some of the problems with the positivist half of the positivism - hermeneutics dichotomy and show that it is becoming less important in human inquiry. The problem is the inherent assumption that positivism gives a good account of the natural sciences. There is plenty of evidence that this is not the case. I also want to look at some of the ideas regarding the relationship of knowledge to power. Finally I will address what I think are the 'most potent foes' of the advancement of knowledge.
To begin with it is difficult to get an idea of what positivism is. Lincoln and Guba (1985, pp.19-28) cover the subject comprehensively, summarizing the work of a number of writers. In their summary they say that the positivist approach advocates deterministic and reductionist solutions. Let's take a quick look at these aspects of positivism in the contemporary natural sciences

Thomas Samuel Kuhn was born on July 18, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. He received a Ph. D. in physics from Harvard University in 1949 and remained there as an assistant professor of general education and history of science. In 1956, Kuhn accepted a post at the University of California--Berkeley, where in 1961 he became a full professor of history of science. In 1964, he was named M. Taylor Pyne Professor of Philosophy and History of Science at Princeton University. In 1979 he returned to Boston, this time to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as professor of philosophy and history of science. In 1983 he was named Laurence S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy at MIT.

Anaxagoras [Hanover Historical Texts Project)
Anaximander [Hanover Historical Texts Project)
Anaximenes [Hanover Historical Texts Project)
Empedocles [Hanover Historical Texts Project)
Heraclitus (WSU) Melissos [Hanover Historical Texts Project)
Parmenides [Hanover Historical Texts Project)
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans [Hanover Historical Texts Project)
Thales [Hanover Historical Texts Project)
Xenophanes [Hanover Historical Texts Project)
Zeno [Hanover Historical Texts Project)

These pages are mainly intended to be a repository of historical material relating to the fossil Archaeopteryx lithographica.

The pages are divided into four parts, which can be navigated by using the menu bar above:

- In the Archaeopteryx section, there are some articles about Archaeopteryx, historical sources, and a few links to useful sites.
- A second part of the site is devoted to the Danish artist-cum-paleontologist Gerhard Heilmann, whose famous book The Origin of Birds became the common opinion about the origin of birds for over forty years after its appearance in 1926.
- Thirdly, some space (albeit not much at the moment) is reserved for information about the Argentinian paleontologist Florentino Ameghino.
- Finally, there is a section about my Ph.D. Project, "Scientific Societies in the Second Golden Age of Dutch Science, 1850-1914".

Each biographical study here consists of a brief summary of the person's life and work, including, as may be appropriate and available, a photographic or other image, list of publications, and links. In the case of the New Harmony naturalists, there are quite a number of onsite links to species named by them or named in their honor. Many professional photographers have kindly given permission for the use of their work in these links.

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Articles in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy are currently from three sources (1) original contributions by specialized philosophers around the internet, (2) adaptations of material written by the editors for classroom purposes, and (3) adaptations from public domain sources (typically from two or more sources for per article). Articles of types 2 and 3 are designated as "proto articles," and over time we wish to replace all of these with original contributions by specialized philosophers (see submission guidelines). Proto articles are identifiable by the inclusion of the initials IEP at the foot of the article. By contrast, specialized articles are identifiable by the author's name at the close.

If this Discourse appear too long to be read at once, it may be divided into six Parts: and, in the first, will be found various considerations touching the Sciences; in the second, the principal rules of the Method which the Author has discovered, in the third, certain of the rules of Morals which he has deduced from this Method; in the fourth, the reasonings by which he establishes the existence of God and of the Human Soul, which are the foundations of his Metaphysic; in the fifth, the order of the Physical questions which he has investigated, and, in particular, the explication of the motion of the heart and of some other difficulties pertaining to Medicine, as also the difference between the soul of man and that of the brutes; and, in the last, what the Author believes to be required in order to greater advancement in the investigation of Nature than has yet been made, with the reasons that have induced him to write.

Many people view genetic engineering as a relatively new field of scientific pursuit, but in fact the techniques that are in use today are the result of a series of landmark discoveries that were made over a period spanning more than 125 years. This article presents a timeline of key discoveries that have culminated in the human genome project, an international effort to decipher the sequence of the 3 billion base pair subunits of DNA which reside in the chromosomes of human beings.