Abstract

Some of us think that the current consensus in the natural sciences is closer to the truth than it has ever been before. But for decades we have been told that important parts of this consensus are due to interactions of power, rhetoric and custom which have no tendency to promote truth in our own view. I think that the debunking of this debunking in The Advancement of Science is a devastating success, an awesome combination of erudition, philosophical insight and conceptual resourcefulness. But I have doubts about related, constructive projects which seem to be interwoven with this counter-attack—doubts which are mixed with admiration for the resources and arguments that Kitcher provides.