Description
| Product ID: | 9780192862730 |
| Product Form: | Hardback |
| Country of Manufacture: | GB |
| Title: | Identifying Future-Proof Science |
| Authors: | Author: Peter , Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Centre for Humanities Engaging Science and S |
| Page Count: | 288 |
| Subjects: | Philosophy, Philosophy, Philosophy of science, History of science, Philosophy of science, History of science |
| Description: | This is the first book to explore how to identify future-proof science. Peter Vickers takes a transdisciplinary approach in his analysis of 'scientific fact' in order to defend science against potentially dangerous scepticism. Is science getting at the truth? The sceptics - those who spread doubt about science - often employ a simple argument: scientists were ''sure'' in the past, and then they ended up being wrong. Through a combination of historical investigation and philosophical-sociological analysis, Identifying Future-Proof Science defends science against this potentially dangerous scepticism. Indeed, we can confidently identify many scientific claims that are future-proof: they will last forever, so long as science continues. How do we identify future-proof claims? This appears to be a new question for science scholars, and not an unimportant one. Peter Vickers argues that the best way to identify future-proof science is to avoid any attempt to analyse the relevant first-order scientific evidence, instead focusing purely on second-order evidence. Specifically, a scientific claim is future-proof when the relevant scientific community is large, international, and diverse, and at least 95% of that community would describe the claim as a ''scientific fact''. In the entire history of science, no claim meeting these criteria has ever been overturned, despite enormous opportunity. |
| Imprint Name: | Oxford University Press |
| Publisher Name: | Oxford University Press |
| Country of Publication: | GB |
| Publishing Date: | 2022-11-30 |
