PMID: 7016767Jan 1, 1981Paper

Science, philosophy, and society: some recent books

International Journal of Health Services : Planning, Administration, Evaluation
E Holtzman

Abstract

The essay discusses a number of issues developed in several recent books on philosophical and ethical problems in the natural sciences, both pure (especially biology) and applied (especially medicine). The scaffolding of the discussion can be outlined as follows: Science is most coherently portrayed as a set of activities through which societies deal with a distinctive, but continually evolving set of interwoven practical, empirical, and conceptual problems. Consequently, approaches which attempt to delineate universal features of "scientific methods" or to depict the sciences as providing an approximation to an "objective" view of reality are much less enlightening than are analyses rooted directly in concrete scientific history and in the actual interplay of science with other social configurations. However, scientists are granted some meaningful autonomy in exercising their "curiosity" and there is a real sense in which scientific ideas and activities do possess momentum of their own. In other words, as is also true for other spheres, such as the arts, it is important not to fall into mechanical viewpoints which treat the movement of science as simply a derivative of forces generated elsewhere.

References

Apr 28, 1978·Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences·A S Posner
Oct 1, 1977·Southern Medical Journal·B A Work
Nov 11, 1977·Science·J Goodfield
Jan 1, 1977·International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics·S K AgarwalA Normansell
Sep 29, 1976·Psychopharmacology·S J Dimond, E M Brouwers
Jun 10, 1977·Science·F Jacob
Sep 1, 1976·International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics·H Barbason
Apr 28, 1973·Lancet·M Seigleman
Aug 22, 1973·Journal of Theoretical Biology·M Ruse
May 16, 1975·Science·John T Edsall
Jan 1, 1977·International Journal of Health Services : Planning, Administration, Evaluation·Eric Holtzman
Mar 30, 1978·Nature·Bernard D Davis
Mar 1, 1976·Bioscience·UNKNOWN Science for the People. Sociobiology Study Group

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Citations

Nov 5, 2003·Environmental Health Perspectives·Steve Wing
May 22, 1998·International Journal of Health Services : Planning, Administration, Evaluation·S Wing
Jan 1, 1984·International Journal of Health Services : Planning, Administration, Evaluation·S Wing

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