The Triumph of Uncertainty
Tauber, a leading figure in history and philosophy of science, offers a unique autobiographical overview of how science as a discipline of thought has been characterized by philosophers and historians over the past century. He frames his account through science’s – and his own personal – quest for e...
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| Materiálatiipa: | Online |
| Giella: | eaŋgalasgiella |
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Central European University Press
2022
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| Fáttát: | |
| Liŋkkat: | ONIX_20220905_9789633865828_23 |
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| _version_ | 1869516682270081024 |
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| author | Tauber, Alfred I. |
| author_browse | Tauber, Alfred I. |
| author_facet | Tauber, Alfred I. |
| author_sort | Tauber, Alfred I. |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | Tauber, a leading figure in history and philosophy of science, offers a unique autobiographical overview of how science as a discipline of thought has been characterized by philosophers and historians over the past century. He frames his account through science’s – and his own personal – quest for explanatory certainty. During the 20th century, that goal was displaced by the probabilistic epistemologies required to characterize complex systems, whether in physics, biology, economics, or the social sciences. This “triumph of uncertainty” is the inevitable outcome of irreducible chance and indeterminate causality. And beyond these epistemological limits, the interpretative faculties of the individual scientist (what Michael Polanyi called the “personal” and the “tacit”) invariably affects how data are understood. Whereas positivism had claimed radical objectivity, post-positivists have identified how a web of non-epistemic values and social forces profoundly influence the production of knowledge. Tauber presents a case study of these claims by showing how immunology has incorporated extra-curricular social elements in its theoretical development and how these in turn have influenced interpretive problems swirling around biological identity, individuality, and cognition. The correspondence between contemporary immunology and cultural notions of selfhood are strong and striking. Just as uncertainty haunts science, so too does it hover over current constructions of personal identity, self knowledge, and moral agency. Across the chasm of uncertainty, science and selfhood speak. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-91673 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publishDateRange | 2022 |
| publishDateSort | 2022 |
| publisher | Central European University Press |
| publisherStr | Central European University Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-916732024-03-26T22:55:59Z The Triumph of Uncertainty Tauber, Alfred I. Biography: philosophy & social sciences thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DN Biography and non-fiction prose::DNB Biography: general Tauber, a leading figure in history and philosophy of science, offers a unique autobiographical overview of how science as a discipline of thought has been characterized by philosophers and historians over the past century. He frames his account through science’s – and his own personal – quest for explanatory certainty. During the 20th century, that goal was displaced by the probabilistic epistemologies required to characterize complex systems, whether in physics, biology, economics, or the social sciences. This “triumph of uncertainty” is the inevitable outcome of irreducible chance and indeterminate causality. And beyond these epistemological limits, the interpretative faculties of the individual scientist (what Michael Polanyi called the “personal” and the “tacit”) invariably affects how data are understood. Whereas positivism had claimed radical objectivity, post-positivists have identified how a web of non-epistemic values and social forces profoundly influence the production of knowledge. Tauber presents a case study of these claims by showing how immunology has incorporated extra-curricular social elements in its theoretical development and how these in turn have influenced interpretive problems swirling around biological identity, individuality, and cognition. The correspondence between contemporary immunology and cultural notions of selfhood are strong and striking. Just as uncertainty haunts science, so too does it hover over current constructions of personal identity, self knowledge, and moral agency. Across the chasm of uncertainty, science and selfhood speak. 2022-09-05T13:32:29Z 2022-09-05T13:32:29Z 2022 book ONIX_20220905_9789633865828_23 9789633865828 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/91673 eng image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://muse.jhu.edu/book/100052 Central European University Press 49dd7c40-8e8d-4f66-b9e6-2895b535a0e0 9789633865828 370 open access |
| spellingShingle | Biography: philosophy & social sciences thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DN Biography and non-fiction prose::DNB Biography: general Tauber, Alfred I. The Triumph of Uncertainty |
| title | The Triumph of Uncertainty |
| title_full | The Triumph of Uncertainty |
| title_fullStr | The Triumph of Uncertainty |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Triumph of Uncertainty |
| title_short | The Triumph of Uncertainty |
| title_sort | triumph of uncertainty |
| topic | Biography: philosophy & social sciences thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DN Biography and non-fiction prose::DNB Biography: general |
| topic_facet | Biography: philosophy & social sciences thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DN Biography and non-fiction prose::DNB Biography: general |
| url | ONIX_20220905_9789633865828_23 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT tauberalfredi thetriumphofuncertainty AT tauberalfredi triumphofuncertainty |