Evandro Agazzi: Scientific Objectivity and Its Contexts

摘要

Agazzi is widely regarded as the most eminent Italian philosopher of science, and the present volume represents a mature version of his thought on some of the central problems in the philosophy of science, developed over the course of his long career, at least since his book Temi e problemi di filosofia della fisica (Milan 1969). The rich and wide-ranging book offers a critical dialogue with many contemporary philosophers, debates, and viewpoints. It includes ten chapters and one appendix on philosophical topics associated with the concept of scientific objectivity as the key to the scientific understanding of reality. It spans on scientific knowledge, its nature, limits and requirements, as well as on the connected questions of ethical responsibility and metaphysical backgrounds of science. Some chapters may be considered as updated versions of previously published papers, while others have been specifically written for this volume. The topics addressed in the book are the following: the ontological commitment of science (especially as regards truth and reference of theories: chs. 3 and 4), scientific realism (ch. 5), the historical and hermeneutic dimension of science (ch. 6), the relationship between theory and experiment and the problem of scientific progress (ch. 7 and 8), the historical-social contextualisation of science, the relationship between science and technique, and the ethical responsibility of science (ch. 9), the relationship between science and metaphysics (ch. 10), and the semantics of empirical theories (appendix).