The Discourses of Science / Edition 2

by Marcello Pera, Clarissa Botsford

Overview

In this much anticipated revision and translation of Scienza e Retorica, Marcello Pera argues that rhetoric is central to the making of scientific knowledge.

Pera begins with an attack of what he calls the "Cartesian syndrome"—the fixation on method common to both defenders of traditional philosophy of science and its detractors. He argues that in assuming the primacy of methodological rules, both sides get it wrong. Scientific knowledge is neither the simple mirror of nature nor a cultural construct imposed by contingent interests, thus we must replace the idea of scientific method with that of scientific rhetoric.

Pera proposes a new dialectics of science to overcome the tension between normative and descriptive philosophies of science by focusing on the rhetoric in the proposition, defense, and argumentation of theories. Examining the uses of rhetoric in debates drawn from Galileo's Dialogues, Darwin's Origins, and the Big Bang-Steady State controversy in cosmology, Pera shows how the conduct of science involves not just nature and the inquiring mind, but nature, the inquiring mind, and a questioning community which, through the process of attack, defense, and dispute, determines what is science. Rhetoric, then, is an essential element in the constitution of science as the practice of persuasive argumentation through which results gain acceptance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226656175
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	12/15/1994
Series:	The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Christian Doctrine Ser.
Edition description:	1
Pages:	257
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: The Cartesian Syndrome
1: The Paradox of Scientific Method
2: From Method to Rhetoric
3: The Rhetoric of Science
4: Scientific Dialectics
5: The Dialectical Model of Science
6: Epistemology and Rhetorical Strategies
7: Rhetoric and Scientific Progress
Notes
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

Pera (philosophy of science, U. of Pisa) argues that rhetoric is central to the making of scientific knowledge, and proposes to overcome the tension between normative and descriptive philosophies of science by focusing on rhetoric in the construction and acceptance of theories. He examines the uses of argumentation in Galileo's Dialogue, Darwin's Origin, and the big bang/steady state controversy in cosmology. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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