Method, Social Science, and Social Hope

Canadian Journal of Philosophy 11 (4):569 - 588 (1981)
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Abstract

Galileo and his fellowers discovered, and subsequent centuries have amply confirmed, that you get much better predictions by thinking of things as masses of particles blindly bumping each other than by thinking of them as Aristotle thought of them — animistically, teleologically, anthromorphically. They also discovered that you get a better handle on the universe by thinking of it as infinite and cold and comfortless than by thinking of it as finite, homey, planned, and relevant to human concerns. Finally, they discovered that if you view planets or missiles or corpuscles as point-masses, you can get nice simple predictive laws by looking for nice simple mathematical ratios. These discoveres are the basis of modern technological civilization. We can hardly be too grateful for them. But they do not, pace Descartes and Kant, point any epistemological moral.

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References found in this work

Kantian constructivism in moral theory.John Rawls - 1980 - Journal of Philosophy 77 (9):515-572.
Pragmatism.W. James & F. C. S. Schiller - 1907 - Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 15 (5):19-19.
Nietzsche as Philosopher.Arthur C. Danto - 1965 - Science and Society 32 (1):89-91.

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