The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science

by Michael Strevens

Overview

A paradigm-shifting, widely acclaimed work for our generation, The Knowledge Machine revolutionizes our understanding of the origins and structure of science.

Michael Strevens’s “provocative and fascinating” (Jennifer Szalai, New York Times) investigation of science asks two fundamental questions: Why is science so powerful? And why did it take so long for the human race to start using science to learn the secrets of nature? The Knowledge Machine’s radical answer is that science, by nature, calls on its practitioners to do the irrational. By willfully ignoring religion, theoretical beauty, and especially philosophy, scientists embrace an unnaturally narrow method of inquiry, channeling unprecedented energy into observation and experimentation. Rich with vivid historical examples and widely acclaimed, Knowledge Machine overturns many of our most basic assumptions about scientific discovery.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324091080
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	11/16/2021
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Michael Strevens, a 2017 Guggenheim Fellow, is a professor of philosophy at New York University. He was born in New Zealand and has been writing about philosophy of science for twenty-five years. He lives in New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Knowledge Machine 1

I The Great Method Debate

1 Unearthing the Scientific Method 13

2 Human Frailty 41

3 The Essential Subjectivity of Science 66

II How Science Works

4 The Iron Rule of Explanation 89

5 Baconian Convergence 105

6 Explanatory Ore 120

7 The Drive for Objectivity 152

8 The Supremacy of Observation 173

III Why Science Took So Long

9 Science's Strategic Irrationality 201

10 The War against Beauty 209

11 The Advent of Science 239

IV Science Now

12 Building the Scientific Mind 255

13 Science and Humanism 269

14 Care and Maintenance of the Knowledge Machine 278

Acknowledgments 291

Glossary of Novel Terms 293

Notes 295

References 321

List of Illustrations 331

Index 335

Editorial Reviews

…a provocative and fascinating book…that mostly enthralled me…The Knowledge Machine is ultimately a work of philosophy, and should be considered an ambitious thought experiment. Strevens builds on the work of philosophers like Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn to come up with his own original hypothesis about the advent of modern science and its formidable consequences.

The New York Times - Jennifer Szalai

07/13/2020

Strevens (Thinking Off Your Feet), an NYU philosophy professor, takes a scholarly look at how modern science arose with this erudite study. He begins by examining impactful explanations for the scientific method’s success, chiefly Karl Popper’s position that science is defined by a rigorous commitment to finding evidence opposed to, as well as in support of, one’s own theories, and Thomas Kuhn’s idea of scientific paradigms, or culturally dominant theories which scientists gain intellectual clout by subscribing to. After pointing out these arguments’ flaws, he outlines his own “Iron Rule of Explanation,” which sees “empirical testing” as science’s defining principle. While modern scientists are still susceptible to error and bias, Strevens writes, the iron rule sets hard data as the foundation of their theories, and this sets their work apart from the ancient and middle ages’—often quite ingenious but less practically useful—natural philosophy. Strevens supports his arguments with historical examples, like Arthur Eddington’s 1919 eclipse viewing intended to substantiate Einstein’s theory of general relativity; he notes that Eddington took great care in the collection of data, but not, contrary to Popper, in considering contradictory or ambiguous evidence, nor, contrary to Kuhn, in adhering to previously established scientific consensus. For readers curious about why science works as well as it does, Strevens provides a convincing answer. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"The Knowledge Machine is the most stunningly illuminating book of the last several decades regarding the all-important scientific enterprise."

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

"Without the benefits of science, everyday life would be almost medieval. Michael Strevens pulls off the ambitious task of revealing how science really works as he defends the power and effectiveness of the scientific method to reveal the true nature of things against those who deny it very existence. The Knowledge Machine is an engaging must-read if you want to find out what’s so special about science."

Manjit Kumar

"Michael Strevens is one of the leading philosophers of science at work today, so I knew this book would be powerful, bracingly argued, and important. What I did not expect was that it would be such a rollicking good read."

Jim Holt

"Riveting… Strevens promises his readers a better explanation of scientific progress than those given by his two illustrious predecessors, Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn…[He] sustains his polemical fireworks with a steady succession of examples drawn from the history of science…Worth reading for the quality of Mr. Strevens’s prose alone, his crystal-clear, unfussy sentences, the crisp metaphors(comparing, say, an electron’s complex “superposition” in quantum mechanics to a cocktail mixed from many ingredients) and many excellent quips… As a hard-nosed, wonderfully timely plea for taking science seriously, for allowing scientists to do their work without interference, The Knowledge Machine is unparalleled."

Wall Street Journal - Christoph Irmscher

"A delight to read. . . . The Knowledge Machine is richly illustrated with wonderfully told, easy-to-understand incidents from the history of natural science."

Nancy Cartwright

"Strevens treats us to fascinating episodes in the history of science, wittily and illuminatingly recounted, and to beautifully lucid and accessible accounts of the underlying philosophical issues. A rare achievement, it is entertaining and edifying all at once."

Paul Boghossian

"A book as thrilling to read as it is important. . . . To move through The Knowledge Machine is to have one’s assumptions about evidence-based inquiry challenged in captivating fashion; I read it in a trance of delight."

Nathan Heller

"A provocative and fascinating book.... Strevens’s book contains a number of surprises, including an elegant section on quantum mechanics that coolly demonstrates why it’s such an effective theory.... Ambitious.... Strevens builds on the work of philosophers like Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn to come up with his own original hypothesis about the advent of modern science and its formidable consequences."

New York Times - Jennifer Szalai

"In this beautifully written, accessible, and often entertaining book, Michael Strevens takes up the serious task of accounting for the success of science, and why it took so long to achieve it."

Philip Kitcher

"As with Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions, its brevity and simplicity cannot conceal the boldness of its conception, the extraordinary scope of its ambition. It is a very important, perhaps even a great book."

David Wootton

"There could hardly be a better introduction to the philosophy of science than The Knowledge Machine."

Alan Ryan

"A stylish and accessible investigation into the nature of the scientific method."

Philosophy Times - Nigel Warburton

"It is easy to take science for granted, but in truth it is a peculiar institution that is absent from most of human history. Michael Strevens puts his finger on its essential core—a self-denying rejection of any reasoning that does not trade in new observational evidence—and shows how this ‘iron rule’ explains both why science is strange and why it is successful. Strevens wears his learning lightly, but this elegant book takes us to the heart of the scientific enterprise."

David Papineau

"Strevens shows scientists exerting themselves intellectually.... [and] aims to identify that special something."

The New Yorker - Joshua Rothman

2020-07-22
An exploration of the period, beginning in 1600, “during which empirical inquiry evolved from the freewheeling, speculative frenzy of old into something with powers of discovery on a wholly new level.”

Throughout most of history, writes NYU philosophy professor Strevens, all cultures believed everything worth knowing was already known. Asked to explain the motion of the heavens, the nature of disease, or the makeup of matter, wise men in ancient Egypt, Greece, or China thought deeply and gave answers that were mostly wrong. The great leap forward came after about 1600 with the scientific revolution, which led to dazzling progress and continues to do so. There is no shortage of explanations of how scientists work. Strevens concisely summarizes the most prominent and gives them credit when he feels credit is due. Central to his thesis is what he calls the “iron rule of explanation,” which denies that knowledge follows from thinking, logic, or infallible authority. Wise men in earlier times would have disagreed because they routinely mixed philosophy with observations, and their work was suffused with teleology: the belief that everything has a purpose. Aristotle taught that objects fall because their natural place is the center of the universe. The iron rule ignores what scientists believe and “makes no attempt to…decide winners and losers.” It does not settle arguments but prolongs them by demanding an empirical test, one that all agree will provide useful evidence. “It is a rule for doing rather than thinking,” writes the author. No political, religious, or philosophical reflection allowed; just the facts. Strevens emphasizes that the rule applies to communicating research findings, generally in a professional journal, and scientists remain free to express personal feelings and find deeper meanings. Many—perhaps too many—take advantage of this, writes the author, who provides a thought-provoking and likely-to-be-controversial explanation of how scientists finally got it right.

One of the better examinations of the origins of the scientific revolution.

Kirkus Reviews