Explaining Science: A Cognitive Approach

by Ronald N. Giere

"This volume presents an attempt to construct a unified cognitive theory of science in relatively short compass. It confronts the strong program in sociology of science and the positions of various postpositivist philosophers of science, developing significant alternatives to each in a readily comprehensible style. It draws loosely on recent developments in cognitive science, without burdening the argument with detailed results from that source. . . . The book is thus a provocative one. Perhaps that is a measure of its value: it will lead scholars and serious students from a number of science studies disciplines into continued and sharpened debate over fundamental questions."—Richard Burian, Isis

"The writing is delightfully clear and accessible. On balance, few books advance our subject as well."—Paul Teller, Philosophy of Science

Genres: Philosophy, Science, Nonfiction, Psychology

344 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1988

Reviews

[Dennis Robbins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the earlier books that provided a coherent understanding of science by using philosophical, historical, sociological, and cognitive perspectives. This is now the dominant program in the modern efforts to create a definition of science. The author states that science is a human cognitive activity, “concerned with the generation of science” (p.10). Scientific theories resemble the cognitive maps used to understand the process of human learning. How best from these multiple perspectives to describe science: is about the literal truth or empirical accuracy? The author examines a broad range of conceptions of science that can be regarded on axes of “theory representation” with a range from external truth (realist) to human created (anti-realist) and “theory judgment” from rational to natural. Giere is in the natural realist domain. The section on the development and acceptance of the theory of plate tectonics is a recent and well-documented historical case study for defining the word “science”.

[Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book from 1988 Ronald Giere begins to build his own semantic view of scientific theories, in what he calls "constructive realism", in opposition to the "syntactic view" or "received view".

For the author, a scientific theory is an heterogeneous entity consisting, on the one hand, of a family of models, and, on the other, a collection of hypotheses, which are linguistic entities. A hypothesis explicitly asserts that some model is similar to some system (or collection of systems) in the real world in such-and-such respects and to such-and-such degrees of accuracy.

Moreover, Giere describes scientists as intentional agents: they construct models and state hypotheses for representing reality with some intention.

A must-read book for anyone interested in Science and Philosophy of Science.

[Kaustubh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book to practicing scientists. It explains the importance of social interactions in Science and the values or beliefs of individual scientists. The author supports his arguments using research conducted in real scientific environments. As a scientific researcher myself, it is interesting to actually experience scenarios that are similar to author's description. For those like me who are less familiar with the "philosophy of science", the author provides a good summary at the start.

[Philip Chaston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed Giere's mixture of disciplinary survey, case-study and appropriation of cognitive theory. An early example of these ideas crossing over into the social studies.