{"title":"Larry Laudan","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the thought-provoking works of Larry Laudan, a key figure in epistemology and the philosophy of science. Explore his influential ideas on scientific progress and rationality.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"beyond-positivism-and-relativism-book-larry-laudan-9780813324692","title":"Beyond Positivism And Relativism","description":"Laudan argues that the debate between positivists and post-positivist relativists can only be resolved by seeing that these unacceptable positions rest on the same unexamined set of assumptions. By targeting and critiquing these assumptions, he lays the groundwork for a post-positivist philosophy of science that does not provide aid and comfort to the enemies of reason. }With the decline of logical positivism after 1950, much work in the philosophy of science has  careened toward an uncritical relativistic approach. Many scholars, faced with a choice between a narrowly restrictive positivism and an anything goes relativism, have sought to find a middle path in the debate.In this collection of papers, several of which appear here for the first time, Larry Laudan argues that resolving this dilemma involves not some centrist compromise position but rather a conception of scientific knowledge that goes beyond both positivism and relativism. This conception must begin with the rejection of assumptions about knowledge that these apparently opposed positions hold in common. Relativism, for Laudan, is a particularly self-defeating form of neopositivism.In showing the connections between these two approaches and clarifying the positions of such influential philosophers as Thomas Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend, Laudan does the great service of laying the foundation for an account of science that rejects the errors of positivism without providing aid and comfort to the enemies of reason. He also takes a fresh look at many other central issues of scientific philosophy, including the science\/non-science demarcation, the underdetermination of theory by evidence, and the contested role of social factors in the  legitimation of scientific knowledge. Beyond Positivism and  Relativism is a major statement about the nature of science  and evidence that will command the interest of philosophers  of science, epistemologists, sociologists of knowledge, and  all who are seriously concerned about science, scientific progress, and the implications for knowledge in many other fields. }","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49552930734353,"sku":"GOR007300613","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50097281368337,"sku":"CIN0813324696G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51692445630737,"sku":"CIN0813324696A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0813324696.jpg?v=1751395859"},{"product_id":"book-of-risks-book-larry-laudan-9780471310341","title":"The Book of Risks","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49575639548177,"sku":"GOR009074861","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50244313350417,"sku":"CIN0471310344G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52963820306705,"sku":"CIN0471310344VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52965208260881,"sku":"GOR003721625","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0471310344.jpg?v=1751103121"},{"product_id":"truth-error-and-criminal-law-book-larry-laudan-9780521730358","title":"Truth, Error, and Criminal Law","description":"Beginning with the premise that the principal function of a criminal trial is to find out the truth about a crime, Larry Laudan examines the rules of evidence and procedure that would be appropriate if the discovery of the truth were, as higher courts routinely claim, the overriding aim of the criminal justice system. Laudan mounts a systematic critique of existing rules and procedures that are obstacles to that quest. He also examines issues of error distribution by offering the first integrated analysis of the various mechanisms - the standard of proof, the benefit of the doubt, the presumption of innocence and the burden of proof - for implementing society's view about the relative importance of the errors that can occur in a trial.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49787015004433,"sku":"CIN052173035XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51003210465553,"sku":"NIN9780521730358","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52435609157905,"sku":"NLS9780521730358","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53364559282449,"sku":"GOR005728497","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/052173035X.jpg?v=1751391456"},{"product_id":"progress-and-its-problems-book-larry-laudan-9780520037212","title":"Progress and Its Problems","description":"Offers a critique and substantial revision of the historic theories of scientific rationality and progress. 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It covers a wide variety of subjects, such as the chance that your business or your family will go bankrupt, that you will be sued in your lifetime, that you will win the lottery, that your child will get into an Ivy league school, that your new car will be a lemon, and many more.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50115475898641,"sku":"GOR013860994","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50351702671633,"sku":"CIN0471134406A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50351709421841,"sku":"CIN0471134406G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52816761028881,"sku":"CIN0471134406VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0471134406.jpg?v=1751197833"},{"product_id":"science-and-values-book-larry-laudan-9780520057432","title":"Science and Values","description":"In this title, Laudan constructs a fresh approach to a longtime problem for the philosopher of science: how to explain the simultaneous and widespread presence of both agreement and disagreement in science. Laudan critiques the logical empiricists and the post-positivists as he stresses the need for centrality and values and the interdependence of values, methods, and facts as prerequisites to solving the problems of consensus and dissent in science.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50159574515985,"sku":"CIN0520057430A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52958984896785,"sku":"NGR9780520057432","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53521186849041,"sku":"NLS9780520057432","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0520057430.jpg?v=1750943338"},{"product_id":"science-and-relativism-book-larry-laudan-9780226469492","title":"Science and Relativism","description":"In recent years, many members of the intellectual community have embraced a radical relativism regarding knowledge in general and scientific knowledge in particular, holding that Kuhn, Quine, and Feyerabend have knocked the traditional picture of scientific knowledge into a cocked hat. Is philosophy of science, or mistaken impressions of it, responsible for the rise of relativism? 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Although dealing with different figures and different periods, they have a common theme: all are concerned with examining how the method of hy­ pothesis came to be the ruling orthodoxy in the philosophy of science and the quasi-official methodology of the scientific community. It might have been otherwise. Barely three centuries ago, hypothetico­ deduction was in both disfavor and disarray. Numerous rival methods for scientific inquiry - including eliminative and enumerative induction, analogy and derivation from first principles - were widely touted. The method of hypothesis, known since antiquity, found few proponents between 1700 and 1850. During the last century, of course, that ordering has been inverted and - despite an almost universal acknowledgement of its weaknesses - the method of hypothesis (usually under such descriptions as 'hypothetico­ deduction' or 'conjectures and refutations') has become the orthodoxy of the 20th century. 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While the US Supreme Court repeatedly says that the aim of a trial is to find out the truth about a crime, there is abundant evidence that many of the rules of evidence and legal procedure are not truth-conducive. Quite the contrary; many are truth-thwarting. Relevant evidence of defendant's guilt is often excluded; reasonable inferences from the available evidence are likewise often excluded. When a defendant elects not to testify, jurors are told to draw no inculpatory inferences from the former's refusal to be questioned. If evidence of prior crimes committed by the defendant is admitted (and often it is excluded), jurors are strictly told to use them only for deciding whether the defendant lied during his testimony and not as evidence of his guilt.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMaking matters worse, the most important evidence rule of all (saying that defendant can be convicted only if there are no reasonable doubts about his guilt) is monumentally vague; and judges are under firm instruction to decline jurors' frequent requests to explain what a 'reasonable doubt' is.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLastly, this book examines the fact that American courts collect little information about how often they convict the innocent and no information about how often they acquit the guilty. 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Il allie   la fois la perspective historique et l'approche conceptuelle. Comment la science  volue-t-elle ? Comment un savoir, appel  science, est-il m me possible ? Pour r pondre   ces questions essentielles pour la pens e en g n ral comme pour l' pist mologie en particulier, Larry Laudan adopte une conception centr e sur l'id e du probl me. Il dresse la typologie des questions qui animent la science et s'attache    tudier comment elle r sout ces questions de fa on sp cifique et comment celles-ci  voluent comme histoire. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eLarry Laudan\u003c\/b\u003e enseigne la philosophie et l'histoire des sciences au Virginia Polytechnic Institute ( tats-Unis).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52593867358481,"sku":"NLS9782804721190","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9782804721190.jpg?v=1761068470"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-larry-laudan.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}