Science and Values: The Aims of Science and Their Role in Scientific Debate

Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. First printing.

TIMELY ANALYSIS OF SCIENTIFIC DEBATE: EMPHASIS ON MUTUAL AGREEMENT ON BOTH METHODS AND VALUE--SIGNED BY AUTHOR.

9 inches tall hardcover, black cloth binding, gilt title to spine, inscribed front free endpaper, "To Ben, With fondest best wishes, Larry." i-xiv, 149 pp. Fine in fine dust jacket in protective mylar sleeve.

LAURENS LYNN "LARRY" LAUDAN (1941 – 2022) was an American philosopher of science and epistemologist. He strongly criticized the traditions of positivism, realism, and relativism, and he defended a view of science as a privileged and progressive institution against challenges. Laudan's philosophical view of "research traditions" is seen as an important alternative to Imre Lakatos's "research programs". Laudan earned his B.A. in Physics from the University of Kansas and his PhD in Philosophy from Princeton University. Against notions of "genuine progress", represented by Karl Popper, and "revolutionism," represented by Thomas Kuhn, Laudan maintained that science is an evolving process that accumulates more empirically validated evidence while solving conceptual anomalies at the same time. Mere evidence collecting or empirical confirmation does not constitute the true mechanism of scientific advancement; conceptual resolution and comparison of the solutions of anomalies provided by various theories form an indispensable part of the evolution of science. Laudan is particularly well known for his pessimistic induction argument against the claim that the cumulative success of science shows that science must truly describe reality. Finally, the better theory solves more conceptual problems while minimizing empirical anomalies.