Martin Carrier Book order

As a powerful tool in the production of knowledge, comparing plays a crucial part in the sciences and the humanities. This volume explores the relationship between comparing and narrating in epistemic practices and clarifies the ways in which narratives enable or impede practices of comparing. It takes into account related activities, such as measuring and classifying, modeling, establishing norms and categories, as well as organizing and popularizing knowledge, to analyze the ambivalent relationship between narratives, scientific explanation, and understanding. The contributions bring out the epistemic role of narratives, and elucidate how narratives are connected to comparisons and scientific explanations.

Focusing on power dynamics in semi-presidential regimes, this analysis examines how authority is distributed between presidents and prime ministers. By utilizing select case studies, it emphasizes the importance of understanding these variations through a configurative lens, while also highlighting the influence of contextual factors on power distribution.

The book explores the evolving relationship between theory and observation in the philosophy of science, challenging the traditional distinctions made by thinkers like Rudolf Carnap. It argues that theoretical terms, such as 'mass' and 'electron', cannot be separated from observational terms, as both are interdependent. The text highlights the theory-ladenness of observation, suggesting that our observational instruments are informed by theoretical frameworks. This interconnection raises questions about the nature of scientific inquiry and the meaning derived from observation in a theoretical context.

The fundamental question of whether, or in what sense, science informs us about the real world has pervaded the history of thought since antiquity. Is what science tells us about the world determined unambiguously by facts, or does the content of any scientific theory in some way depend on the human condition? „Sokal’s hoax“ attacked the mere seriousness of post-modern views of science and shifted this controversial debate to a new level, which very quickly came to be known as „Science Wars“. „Knowledge and the World“ examines and reviews the broad range of philosophical positions on this issue, extending from realism to relativism, to expound the epistemic merit of t science, and to tackle the central question: in what sense can science justifiably claim to provide a truthful portrait of reality? Challenges beyond the Science Wars are taken up by contributions of scientists, sociologists and philosophers of science, which connect perspectives of a wide variety of disciplines (including biology and cultural studies). This book addresses everyone interested in the philosophy and history of science, and in particular in the interplay between the social and natural sciences.

This volume from the Pittsburgh-Konstanz series, covers topics such as folk psychology, meanings as conceptual structures, functional and qualitative properties of colours, role of conscious mental states, representation and mental context, and the impact of connectionism.

Frontmatter -- Preface -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- I. The Philosophical and Scientific Career of the Mind-Body Problem -- II. What is Mind-Body Identity? Reconstruction of the Identity Theory -- III. The Contingent Nature of Mind-Body Identity -- IV. The Self as Pilot -- V. Science and Mind: Explanations of Behavior and Mentalistic Language -- VI. Philosophy and Mind: Psychophysical Dualism -- VII. Psychology and Consciousness -- VIII. Epistemic Limitations of the Mind-Body Relation -- IX. The Mind-Body Relation and Human Self-Understanding -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index of Names -- Index of Subjects -- Backmatter