Abstract

Machiavelli studied the past and wrote history, yet he also complained of the "malice of time" and denounced the infamy of those who proposed to accelerate change by sub- verting religions or republics. Philosophers of science have no such ambivalence about the history of science: the latter is a record of change-growth-but what moves and accel- erates that change is not so much infamous as praiseworthy. J. 0. Wisdom's new book is another attempt to locate the feature of science that propels its growth. It is also yet another attempt to come to terms with Kuhn.