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Naturalized Philosophy of Science with a Plurality of Methods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

David Stump
David Stump*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of San Francisco
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Abstract

Naturalism implies unity of method—an application of the methods of science to the methodology of science itself and to value theory. Epistemological naturalists have tried to find a privileged discipline to be the methodological model of philosophy of science and epistemology. However, since science itself is not unitary, the use of one science as a model amounts to a reduction and distorts the philosophy of science just as badly as traditional philosophy of science distorted science, despite the fact that the central theme of naturalized philosophy of science is that methodology should be true to science as practiced. I argue that naturalized philosophy of science must apply a plurality of methods to epistemological issues.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , September 1992 , pp. 456 - 460
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under a grant awarded in 1990. I thank the NSF and Stanford University for support. I have benefited from discussions on these topics with John Dupré, Peter Galison and Joseph Rouse, from discussions at Larry Laudan's NEH seminar on Naturalized Epistemology, and from the comments of an anonymous referee.

‡

Send reprint requests to the author, Department of Philosophy, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94117–1080, USA.

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