1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910455223003321

Autore

Ziman J. M (John M.), <1925-2005, >

Titolo

Real science : what it is, and what it means / / John Ziman [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2000

ISBN

1-107-11963-4

0-511-15137-3

0-511-04974-9

0-521-77229-X

0-511-54139-2

0-511-31058-7

1-280-42130-4

9786610421305

0-511-17255-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xii, 399 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

501

Soggetti

Science - Philosophy

Science - Methodology

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 356-383) and index.

Nota di contenuto

A peculiar institution -- Basically, it's purely academic -- Adademic science -- New modes of knowledge production -- Community and communication -- Universalism and unification -- Disinterestedness and objectivity -- Originality and novelty -- Scepticism and the growth of knowledge -- What, then, can we believe?

Sommario/riassunto

Scientists and 'anti-scientists' alike need a more realistic image of science. The traditional mode of research, academic science, is not just a 'method': it is a distinctive culture, whose members win esteem and employment by making public their findings. Fierce competition for credibility is strictly regulated by established practices such as peer review. Highly specialized international communities of independent experts form spontaneously and generate the type of knowledge we call 'scientific' - systematic, theoretical, empirically-tested,



quantitative, and so on. Ziman shows that these familiar 'philosophical' features of scientific knowledge are inseparable from the ordinary cognitive capabilities and peculiar social relationships of its producers. This wide-angled close-up of the natural and human sciences recognizes their unique value, whilst revealing the limits of their rationality, reliability, and universal applicability. It also shows how, for better or worse, the new  'post-academic' research culture of teamwork, accountability, etc. is changing these supposedly eternal philosophical characteristics.