Encouraging Openness

However, this picture was preceded by, and in fact emerged from, a widespread characterization of contingency as an ontological trait of nature, typical of late-Scholastic and Renaissance science.Indeed, there is something fundamentally different in the way an Aristotelian natural philosopher defined a wonder or a “monstrous” birth as “contingent”, a modern scientist defines the unexpected result of an experiment, and a quantum physicist the behavior of a photon. Underpinned by a necessitated vision of nature, seventeenth century mechanism widely identified apparent natural irregularities with the epistemological limits of a certain explanatory framework.

However, this picture was preceded by, and in fact emerged from, a widespread characterization of contingency as an ontological trait of nature, typical of late-Scholastic and Renaissance science. Whether observing the behaviour of a photon, diagnosing a patient, or calculating the orbit of a distant planet, scientists face the unavoidable challenge of dealing with data that differ from their models and expectations. Contingency is intrinsic to scientific practice. Underpinned by a necessitated vision of nature, seventeenth century mechanism widely identified apparent natural irregularities with the epistemological limits of a certain explanatory framework.

Part II considers relationships between the history and philosophy of engineering, and includes a general argument for the necessity of dialogue between history and philosophy. This co-edited volume compares Chinese and Western experiences of engineering, technology, and development. The book’s analyses of the interactions of science, engineering, ethics, politics, and policy in different societal contexts are of special interest.

.

The tool perspective underlines the inevitably provisional validity of mathematics: any tool can be adjusted, improved, or lose its adequacy upon changing practical conditions.

Encouraging Openness This volume features forty-two essays written in honor of Joseph Agassi.. Overall, their contributions challenge the received view on a variety of issues concerning science, religion, and education. It explores the work and legacy of this influential philosopher, an exciting and challenging advocate of critical rationalism.

Throughout six decades of stupendous intellectual activity, Agassi called attention to rationality as the very starting point of every notable philosophical way of life. Overall, their contributions challenge the received view on a variety of issues concerning science, religion, and education. It explores the work and legacy of this influential philosopher, an exciting and challenging advocate of critical rationalism. Readers will find well-reasoned arguments on such topics as the secular problem of evil, religion and critical thinking, liberal democratic educational communities, democracy and constitutionalism, and capitalism at a crossroad.

There is a spectrum of means that will normally differ in how well they serve particular purposes. In accordance with the former, mathematics is assigned an active and even shaping role in the sciences, but at the same time, employing mathematics as a tool is taken to be independent from the possible mathematical structure of the objects under consideration. Furthermore, tool-use has to respect conditions like suitability, efficacy, optimality, and others. Hence the tool perspective is contextual rather than ontological.

Encouraging Openness This volume features forty-two essays written in honor of Joseph Agassi.

In the traditional understanding, a strong viewpoint is advocated, on the one hand, according to which mathematics is used for truthfully expressing laws of nature and thus for rendering the rational structure of the world. Furthermore, tool-use has to respect conditions like suitability, efficacy, optimality, and others. Hence the tool perspective is contextual rather than ontological.