Rationality of science was the topic of two conferences (held in 1988 and 1989) organized by the Department of Philosophy of Science, Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University. Both conferences included a small group of invited speakers. This book contains a selection of papers presented there. It is intended mainly for specialists in the philosophy of science and scientists interested in philosophy. Students and especially postgraduate students would also benefit from reading it. The first conference, 'Popper, Polanyi and the Notion of Rationality', was held from 1 to 5 October 1988 in Janowice. The second conference, 'The Aim and Rationality of Science', was held in Cracow at the Jagiellonian Univer sity, from 4-10 June 1989. The topics of both conferences were inspired by our late friend Dr. Tomasz Kocowski, who many years earlier invited me and my colleagues from the Department to participate in research concerning the problem of creativity, and serve him and other psychologists as methodological advisors. Personal contacts with this intelligent and inquisitive man helped us to realize that we could not fulfill our task while adhering to the received view in the philoso phy of science. This experience helped us to see science not only as scientific knowledge but also as a process of research. We then turned our attention to Michael Polanyi, who seemed to provide the philosophy we were looking for.

Klappentext

The book is an outcome of two conferences held in Poland in 1987 and 1990. Both conferences dealt with the problem of rationality; the first put the problem in the context of the philosophy of Popper and Polanyi; and the second involved the notion of the aim of science. This book presents the most comprehensive current account of the manifold approaches to the problem of rationality and related issues. Generally speaking, some authors are convinced that the standard approach to the problem of rationality is more or less correct. They try to amend this approach and/or to reply to some objections to it. Others adopt a more radical attitude and seek inspiration in more exotic regions of philosophy of science, in particular in the philosophy of Michael Polanyi. In this case not only the problem of rationality of science is addressed but also the problem of rationality of the philosophy of science itself. What makes the book really fascinating is the common attitude of all authors in addressing fundamental issues pertaining to the problem of rationality. This results from the fact that both conferences were organized for a small number of participants and there was time for discussion within a friendly but demanding social environment. The book is primarily intended for researchers in the philosophy of science. It is also valuable to other philosophers interested in current trends in philosophy of science, to scientists of various disciplines interested in philosophy, to scientists and to graduate students in the philosophy of science.

Inhalt
The Theory and Practice of Critical Rationalism.- A Deontological Approach to the Rationality of Science.- What Makes Induction Rational?.- The Osianderian Compromise.- Popper, Polanyi and the Notion of Rationality.- On the Nature of Explanation: A PDP Approach.- The Ambiguity of the Lakatos-Zahar Reconstruction of Classical and Relativistic Programmes.- Approximative Truth and Depth as the Main Aims of Science.- Personal Rationality.- Assessment of Theories.- Realism and Idealisation (Metaphysical Objections to Scientific Realism).- Is Evolutionism a Scientific Theory?.- Rationality and Beyond.- In Defence of the Positivist View of Science.- On Polanyi's Notion of Rationality.- Limitations of Determinism in Classical Mechanics.- Scientific Theoryhood.- On the Objectivity of the Popperian Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.- How to De-Ruse Sociobiological Theory of Knowledge?.- Tacit Knowing and the Rationality of Science.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.