Between Rationalism and Historical Relativism

The publication in Russian of this book by the American philosopher Stephen Toulmin (edited with an introduction by Prof. P. E. Sivokon') is convincing evidence of the growing interest of the Soviet philosophical public in such a comparatively new current in Western philosophy of science as post-positivism, and in the problems which the criticism of this current addresses. The book under review sets forth the main results of the post-positive stage in its author's philosophical evolution. The publication of this work in Russian gives the Soviet reader a chance to acquire a quite thorough notion of the essence of the main ideas of post-positivism in the philosophy of science, their epistemological foundations, and their intellectual orientation.