Scientific Progress in Philosophy: A Case for Unconditional Optimism

The book defends optimism about philosophical progress. That is, it argues contra pessimists that philosophy makes as much progress as science makes. Garancini first outlines the standards of progress that pessimists endorse, then he argues that philosophical debates throughout history meet these standards. The main case study focuses on Frege’s contribution to the foundation of analytic philosophy, but other examples are given as well. Galileo, Kant, and Beccaria made philosophical progres...