Explaining Science: A Cognitive Approach - Paperback

by Ronald N. Giere (Author)

"This volume presents an attempt to construct a unified cognitive theory of science in relatively short compass. It confronts the strong program in sociology of science and the positions of various postpositivist philosophers of science, developing significant alternatives to each in a reeadily comprehensible sytle. It draws loosely on recent developments in cognitive science, without burdening the argument with detailed results from that source. . . . The book is thus a provocative one. Perhaps that is a measure of its value: it will lead scholars and serious student from a number of science studies disciplines into continued and sharpened debate over fundamental questions."-Richard Burian, Isis

Back Jacket

Explaining Science challenges fundamental presuppositions of both the philosophy and the sociology of science. Finding a naturalistic middle ground between positivism and relativism, Ronald N. Giere suggests that scientific theories are families of models (similar to the 'cognitive maps' or 'mental models' of cognitive science) that reflect scientists' cognitive interactions with the world they observe.

Author Biography

Ronald N. Giere is professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of Understanding Scientific Reasoning.