Rescuing Reason - Robert Nola

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Résumé :
Do knowledge and science arise from the application of canons of rationality and scientific method? Or is all our scientific knowledge caused by socio-political factors, or by our interests in the socio-political - the view of sociologists of knowledge? Or does it result from interplay of relations of power - the view of Michel Foucault? Or does our knowledge arise from the will to power - the view of Nietzsche? This volume sets out to critically examine the theses of those who would debunk the idea of rational explanation. The book is wide-ranging. The theories of method of Quine, Kuhn, Feyerabend (amongst others) are discussed and related to the views of Marx, Foucault, Wittgenstein and Nietzsche as well as sociologists of science such as Mannheim and Bloor. The author provides a wide interpretative framework which links the doctrines espoused by many of these authors; it is argued that they inherit many of the difficulties in the Strong Programme in the sociology of knowledge, and that they fail to reconcile the normativity of knowledge with their naturalism. It is argued that neither relativists, sceptics, nihilists, sociologists of knowledge nor the postmodernists successfully debunk the claims of rational explanation, far from it: these theorists presuppose much of the theory of methodology they deny.

Sommaire:
I: Knowledge, Science And The Epistemological Enterprise: Synopsis Of Part I.- 1: The Critical Tradition And Some Of Its Discontents.- 2: The Problem Of Knowledge.- 3: Naturalism And Norms Of Reason And Method.- II: THE POVERTY OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE: SYNOPSIS OF PART II.- 4: Some German Connections: Marx And Mannheim.- 5: The Edinburgh Connection I: The Strong Programme And The Social Causes Of Scientific Belief.- 6: The Edinburgh Connection Ii: Strong And Wrong.- 7: The Wittgenstein Connection: The Social And The Rational.- III: The French Connection: Foucault: Synopsis Of Part Iii.- 8: An Archaeological Dig Through Foucault'S Texts.- 9: Genealogy, Power And Knowledge.- IV: The German Connection: Nietzsche: Synopsis Of Part IV.- 10: Nietzsche'S Genealogy of Belief And Morality.- 11: Epilogue.- References.- Name Index.