Inevitability, contingency, and epistemic humility

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 55:12-19 (2016)
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Abstract

I reject both (a) inevitabilism about the historical development of the sciences and (b) what Ian Hacking calls the "put up or shut up" argument against those who make contingentist claims. Each position is guilty of a lack of humility about our epistemic capacities.

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10.1016/j.shpsa.2015.08.006

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Ian James Kidd
Nottingham University

Citations of this work

Deep Epistemic Vices.Ian James Kidd - 2018 - Journal of Philosophical Research 43:43-67..
State of the field: Are the results of science contingent or inevitable?Katherina Kinzel - 2015 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 52:55-66.
Historicism and the failure of HPS.Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen - 2016 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 55:3-11.
Feyerabend on pluralism, contingency, and humility.Ian James Kidd - forthcoming - Filozoficzne Aspekty Genezy 20 (2):1-22.

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References found in this work

The law of peoples.John Rawls - 1999 - Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Edited by John Rawls.
The social construction of what?Ian Hacking - 1999 - Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Is Water H2O? Evidence, Realism and Pluralism.Hasok Chang - 2012 - Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science.

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