User:Ed Poor/Scientific Controversies (book)

Scientific Controversies: Philosophical and Historical Perspectives is collection of essays published by Oxford University Press examining the social constructionist claim that scientific debates can be settled by means other than the scientific method, i.e., what Philip Kitcher calls the "anti-rationalist" model. The book's introduction asserts that it is so well known as to be "trivial" that the history of science is replete with scientific controversy, listing the examples of Aristotle, Galileo, and Einstein among others.

It contains contributions by Canadian philosopher Ian Hacking, British philosopher Philip Kitcher, Italian philosopher Marcello Pera, philosopher of biology Michael Ruse, and metaphysician Wesley C. Salmon.

One of the essays in the book describes the anthropological controversy over the social acceptability cannibalism. Another is the shift from the traditional view of scientific knowledge as the province of professionals, to the idea that anyone can make legitimate discoveries, as discussed by Peter Machamer in his essay, "The Concept of the Individual and the Idea(l) of Method in Seventeenth-Century Natural Philosophy."

The editors assume that scientific controversies exist, involving "theories, facts, experiments, epistemic values, philosophical or ontological assumptions, ways of thought, ideological commitments, social environment, and the like." Then they ask three questions:

1. are controversies essential to science?
2. how is a claim that emerges from a controversy transformed into scientific knowledge?
3. how are scientific controversies settled?