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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
An Orthodox Heresy: Scientific Rhetoric And The Science Of Prions., Carol Reeves
An Orthodox Heresy: Scientific Rhetoric And The Science Of Prions., Carol Reeves
Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS
A significant theoretical shift in the research community examining a class of terminal, infectious neurological disorders that includes Mad Cow Disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and Kuru was assisted by rhetorical production. The local rhetoric of one laboratory, that of Professor Stanley B. Prusiner, involved first situating an heretical hypothesis within the framework of the orthodox narrative and then audaciously promoting that heresy. Another aspect of rhetorical production in this case involved situating a new language associated with the heretical hypothesis. To promote their new lexicon, the Prusiner team evoked orthodox values of consistency, efficiency, and collective ratification. Eventually, what was once …
Review Of Sharon Anderson-Gold, Unnecessary Evil: History And Moral Progress In The Philosophy Of Immanuel Kant (2001), Harry Van Der Linden
Review Of Sharon Anderson-Gold, Unnecessary Evil: History And Moral Progress In The Philosophy Of Immanuel Kant (2001), Harry Van Der Linden
Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS
Harry van der Linden's review of: Unnecessary Evil: History and Moral Progress in the Philosophy of Immanuel Kant. By Sharon Anderson-Gold. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. Pp. xiii, 138. ISBN 0-7914-4819-3 (hbk) $50.50; 0-7914-4820-7 (pbk) $17.95.
Rethinking Mechanistic Explanation, Stuart Glennan
Rethinking Mechanistic Explanation, Stuart Glennan
Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS
Philosophers of science typically associate the causal-mechanical view of scientific explanation with the work of Railton and Salmon. In this paper I shall argue that the defects of this view arise from an inadequate analysis of the concept of mechanism. I contrast Salmon's account of mechanisms in terms of the causal nexus with my own account of mechanisms, in which mechanisms are viewed as complex systems. After describing these two concepts of mechanism, I show how the complex-systems approach avoids certain objections to Salmon's account of causal-mechanical explanation. I conclude by discussing how mechanistic explanations can provide understanding by unification.