In and About the World

Hans Radder is in the Philosophy Department at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He has also written The Material Realization of Science.

"Radder is a rising Dutch philosopher who is ploughing a distinctive path between philosophy of science and technology and its sociological counterpart—normally a Scylla and Charybdis that few would attempt to navigate between. This is a concise and powerful exposition of his moderate realist philosophy of science, complete with a case study illustrating the concrete policy implications of that philosophy—in the case of evaluating the 'appropriateness' of a technology in a third-world setting."—Steve Fuller, University of Durham, author of Social Epistemology"It effectively brings together a body of work that has something important to say about the understanding of science and technology in society. The author is working within a community of discourse (what might be called the Dutch school of science and technology studies) that is both important in its own right and is having increasing influence in the Anglo-American science and technology studies community—a community that includes historians, sociologists, and philosophers of science and technology. So I like the fact that this book brings a new voice from this important scholarly community more fully onto the table of discussion in the U.S."The substance of what Radder specifically has to say is also important. Radder's attempt to steer a middle course between radical constructivist relativism and normative judgment, the development of the concept of nonlocality as a counter to the challenges against science as universal, and his appreciation of work done in appropriate technology, are all insightful and useful contributions to scholarly attempts to understand science and technology." — Carl Mitcham, Pennsylvania State University, author of Thinking Through Technology: The Path Between Engineering and Philosophy

• Preface Chapter 1 Introduction: Realization and Nonlocality in Science and Technology Chapter 2 Reproduction and Nonlocality in Experimental Science 2.1 Introduction2.2 The Realization and Description of Reproducible Experiments2.3 Reproduction in Experimental Practice2.4 Normativity, Stability, and Nonlocality2.5 The Experimenters' Regress2.6 Data versus Phenomena?2.7 Experimental Science and Its Social LegitimationChapter 3 Heuristics, Correspondence, and Nonlocality in Theoretical Science 3.1 Introduction: Intertheoretical Correspondence as a Nonlocal Pattern3.2 The Generalized Correspondence Principle3.3 The Correspondence Principle and the Rise of Quantum Mechanics, 1913–19253.4 Correspondence in Modern Quantum Theory3.5 Evaluation of the Generalized Correspondence Principle3.6 Correspondence and Heuristics3.7 Philosophical ConclusionsChapter 4 Science, Realization, and Reality 4.1 Change and Work4.2 Meeting the Kuhnian Challenge: A Referentially Realist Epistemology for Experimental Science4.3 Meeting the Bachelardian Challenge: An Ontology of Persistently Real Potentialities and Historically Contingent Realizations4.4 Realizing Types and Ranges of Reproducibility4.5 The Abstraction (plus Interpretation and Realization) of Nonlocals4.6 Between Transcendental Realism and Constructivism4.7 Experimentation versus Observation?Chapter 5 Normative Reflexions on Constructivist Approaches to Science and Technology 5.1 Introduction5.2 Normativity in Constructivism5.3 Reflexivity in Constructivism5.4 Locality5.5 Ontological, Epistemological, and Methodological Relativism5.6 The Actor-Network Theory5.7 Conclusion: Analytical, Critical, and Constructive ReflexivityChapter 6 Experiment, Technology, and the Intrinsic Connection between Knowledge and Power 6.1 Introduction6.2 The Production and Maintenance of Closed Systems6.3 The Relation between Experimentation and Technological Production6.4 The Effects of "Effect Thinking"6.5 The Intrinsic Connection between Knowledge and PowerChapter 7 The Appropriate Realization of Technology: The Case of Agricultural Biotechnology 7.1 Introduction7.2 The Potentialities and Actualities of Agricultural Biotechnology and Its Ethics7.3 Realizing Technology7.4 Realizing Appropriate Technology7.5 Realizing Appropriate Agricultural Biotechnology7.6 ConclusionChapter 8 Philosophy: In and about the World 8.1 Introduction8.2 Philosophy as Theoretical8.3 Philosoophy as Normative8.4 Philosophy as ReflexiveNotes References Index