The Search for a Naturalistic World View: Volume 1

by Abner Shimony

Overview

Abner Shimony is one of the most eminent of present-day philosophers of science, whose work has exerted a profound influence in both the philosophy and physics communities. This two-volume collection of his essays written over a period of forty years explores the interrelations between science and philosophy. Shimony regards the knowing subject as an entity in nature whose faculties must be studied from the points of view of evolutionary biology and empirical psychology. He maintains that the twentieth century is one of the great ages of metaphysics, given the deep implications of quantum mechanics, relativity theory, and molecular biology. Nevertheless he rejects the thesis that mentality is entirely explicable in physical terms and argues that mind has a fundamental place in nature. Though distinguishing between values and scientifically established facts, Shimony holds that the sense of wonder cultivated by the natural sciences is one of the noblest of human values. The first volume, Scientific Method and Epistemology, deals with the dialectic of subject and object, epistemic probability, induction and scientific theories, perception and conception, and fact and values. The focus of the second volume, Natural Science and Metaphysics, is on quantum mechanical measurement and nonlocality, parts and wholes, time, and mind and matter. The volumes will be of great interest to a broad range of philosophers of science as well as those who teach epistemology and metaphysics. The collection will also be read by philosophically-minded natural scientists, especially physicists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521373524
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/26/1993
Pages:	350
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.94(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; Preface; 1. Integral epistemology; 2. Reality, causality and closing the circle; 3. Search for a world view that can accommodate our knowledge of microphysics; 4. Perception from an evolutionary point of view; 5. Is observation theory-laden? A problem in naturalistic epistemology; 6. Coherence and the axioms of confirmation; 7. An adamite derivation of the principles of the calculus of probability; 8. The status of the principle of maximum entropy; 9. Scientific inference; 10. Reconsiderations on inductive logic; 11. Comments on two epistemological these of Thomas Kuhn; 12. Comment on Martin Eger's A Tale of Two Controversies; Index.

Editorial Reviews

Winner 1996 Lakatos Award

"This collection of papers is an admirable contribution to the study of nature and of how we aquire knowledge of it. Shimony's work is an important model for how these investigations ought to be carried out." The Philosophical Review

"There is so much to be learned and savored in these two volumes that my goal here has not been to 'summarize' Abner Shimony's Oeuvres, but to entice the reader into perusing this collection of masterfully written essays." American Journal of Physics

"There is so much to be learned and savored in these two volumes that my goal here has not been to 'summarize' Abner Shimony's Oeuvres, but to entice the reader into perusing this collection of masterfully written essays." American Journal of Physics

From the Publisher