Philosophy of Science and Science Studies

Abstract

Science studies have proposed a novel and integrated outlook on scientific activity, to be described in a quasi-anthropological way and without the supposed normative prejudice of most philosophers of science. This chapter examines the stiff competition between philosophy of science and science studies in accounting for what science really is about. This competition is best framed at a methodological level, in particular in terms of the relationship between the study of science and its history. Should one strive for ahistorical generalizations or focus on the irremediably singular low-level interactions that constitute the day-to-day business of scientific life? Should one accept to practice “judged history,” and put past theories in perspective with what we learned to be right and wrong about them, or should one refrain from any such overseeing perspective? The chapter concludes with prospects for accounting from within philosophy of science for the important phenomena that science studies have contributed.