Inevitability, contingency, and epistemic humility

摘要

This paper offers an epistemological framework for the debate about whether the results of scientific enquiry are inevitable or contingent. I argue in Sections 2 and 3 that inevitabilist stances are doubly guilty of epistemic hubris a lack of epistemic humility and that the real question concerns the scope and strength of our contingentism. The latter stages of the paper-Sections-4 and 5-address some epistemological and historiographical worries and sketch some examples of deep contingencies to guide further debate. I conclude by affirming that the concept of epistemic humility can usefully inform critical reflection on the contingency of the sciences and the practice of history of science. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.