Abstract
Philosophers of science have traditionally been concerned with the special epistemological and methodological problems which emerge as we move from common-sense pictures of our immediate surroundings to sophisticated scientific theories of the whole universe. Thus they have asked: How is scientific experimentation different from the casual data collecting which goes on in our ordinary day-to-day existence? How, if at all, is it possible to get knowledge about unobservable entities and processes? Are scientific explanations different in kind from common-sense accounts? Etc.
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Notes
An earlier version of this paper was read in the Seminar für Philosophie, Logik und Wissenschaftstheorie, Munich on July 15, 1977.
For a brief but systematic discussion of the ethical dimensions of pure science see my ‘Wissenschaftsethik’, forthcoming in Handlexikons zun Wissenschaftstheorie (Ehrenwirth Verlag).
For a fair and balanced historical discussion of this very controversial topic, see Kenneth M. Ludmerer, Genetics and American Society (John Hopkins University Press, 1972).
Gar Allen, ‘Genetics, Eugenics and Society’, Social Studies of Science 6 (1976), 105–22.
The numbers used below come from Corinne Hutt, Males and Females (Penguin Books, 1972).
See W. C. Salmon, Statistical Explanation and Statistical Relevance (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1971).
For a clear discussion of both the scientific and ethical issues, see Michael Ruse, Sociobiology: Sense or Nonsense? (Reidel, 1979).
A more complete discussion can be found in my ‘Braucht die Sozialwissenschaft wirklich Metaphysik?’, in H. Albert und K. H. Stapf (eds.), Theorie und Erfahrung (Klett-Cotta, 1979).
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© 1985 D. Reidel Publishing Company
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Koertge, N. (1985). Ethical Problems in Science Communication. In: Andersson, G. (eds) Rationality in Science and Politics. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 79. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-6254-5_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-6254-5_10
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