Postmodern Philosophy and the Scientific Turn

by Dorothea E. Olkowski

What can come of a scientific engagement with postmodern philosophy? Some scientists have claimed that the social sciences and humanities have nothing to contribute, except perhaps peripherally, to their research. Dorothea E. Olkowski shows that the historic link between science and philosophy, mathematics itself, plays a fundamental role in the development of the worldviews that drive both fields. Focusing on language, its expression of worldview and usage, she develops a phenomenological account of human thought and action to explicate the role of philosophy in the sciences. Olkowski proposes a model of phenomenology, both scientific and philosophical, that helps make sense of reality and composes an ethics for dealing with unpredictability in our world.

Genres: Philosophy

248 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2012

Reviews

[Lane Wilkinson · Rating 1 out of 5]

If science and postmodernism are to be reconciled (and I think they can be), then it's going to have to come from someone equally proficient on both sides of the aisle. And while it's clear that Olkowski really understands Deleuze, sadly, her treatment of thermodynamics, formal logic, and mathematics are too beholden to Deleuzian equivocation, wordplay, and spurious sociological inferences to add anything of interest to the science wars.

[Also, because Olkowski gets this wrong a half-dozen times (p. 69, 105, etc), material implication is not the same as causality. Seriously, it bugs the hell out of me when people make grand metaphysical and scientific claims based on a misunderstanding of basic first-order logic.]

[Luís Branco · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a wonderful work in philosophy. I enjoyed reading it and especially in the first section of the book when it gives clear explanations about postmodernism. The book also brings a substantial understanding of the relation between natural science and philosophy, showing its incompatibilities and its likeness. I would recommend this book to other scholars.