PHILIP KITCHER, Professor in Philosophy at Columbia University, City of New York. He taught philosophy at Vassar College, the University of Vermont, the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota and UC San Diego. His research interests are in the philosophy of science, with particular emphasis on general questions in the philosophy of science, problems in the philosophy of biology, and issues in the philosophy of mathematics. Kitcher attempts to connect these questions with the central philosophical issues of epistemology, metaphysics and ethics, with the history of philosophy (especially the history of modern philosophy), and with the practice and findings of the sciences, past and present.

This book is about the growth of scientific knowledge and influenced by the thinking of Thomas Kuhn and C.G. Hempel. Kitcher addresses on ongoing debate about the objectivity of science. This objectivity is questioned facing the ever changing knowledge of science and the often recounted aspects of social constructs by post modern thinkers. No human theory, however, can ever be complete, because it is unlikely to have a complete description of reality. Yet, there is a promise of objectivity that arises in the form of collective knowledge which has a tremendous heuristic value. The language of science is universal, although with a changing vocabulary, demonstrating a growth and advancement in the sciences. Yet at any given moment, the house of science is objective, for it adheres to a logical system that relates hypothesis with experimental procedures. It is the scientific method that objectifies, not the mere factual content. The latter is subject to change pending new insights, discoveries, premises upon which theories are molded.

December 30, 1999 / © 1999 Lukas K. Buehler /  go back to Book Review Home