Philip Kitcher's Scientific Significance Of The Unity Of Science

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Since the times of the Vienna Circle in the early twentieth century, most philosophers have defined science’s epistemic aims in the interlinked concepts of explanation and understanding, laws, unity of science, and causes (IIT). Most theories relating to the above four concepts emphasize generality’s importance in science’s epistemic significance (Nov 2nd handout). This notion of generalization is linked to the underlying belief that science is reducible, and the collective body of sciences aim to be unified and to discover the broad laws of nature (Neurath 306). This unity-of-science view is sustained by the reducible nature of physics— an old science admired because of its logical and mathematical structure. However, the unity-of-science view clashes with the messier and newer sciences, such as biology. …show more content…

Using Philip Kitcher’s chapter “Scientific Significance,” this essay argues that the universalization of the unity-of-science approach to all sciences is problematic and confines our comprehension of science’s

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