Books in the Science & its Conceptual Foundations Series SCF series

"All art should become science and all science art; poetry and philosophy should be made one." Friedrich Schlegel's words perfectly capture the project of the German Romantics, who believed that the aesthetic approaches of art and literature could reveal patterns and meaning in nature that couldn't be uncovered through rationalistic philosophy and science alone. In this wide-ranging work, Robert J. Richards shows how the Romantic conception of the world influenced (and was influenced by) both the lives of the people who held it and the development of nineteenth-century science. Integrating Romantic literature, science, and philosophy with an intimate knowledge of the individuals involved--from Goethe and the brothers Schlegel to Humboldt and Friedrich and Caroline Schelling--Richards demonstrates how their tempestuous lives shaped their ideas as profoundly as their intellectual and cultural heritage. He focuses especially on how Romantic concepts of the self, as well as aesthetic and moral considerations--all tempered by personal relationships--altered scientific representations of nature. Although historians have long considered Romanticism at best a minor tributary to scientific thought, Richards moves it to the center of the main currents of nineteenth-century biology, culminating in the conception of nature that underlies Darwin's evolutionary theory. Uniting the personal and poetic aspects of philosophy and science in a way that the German Romantics themselves would have honored, The Romantic Conception of Life alters how we look at Romanticism and nineteenth-century biology.

Why have many members of the intellectual community embraced a radical relativism where knowledge in general and scientific knowledge in particular are concerned? Have Kuhn, Quine, and Feyerabend knocked the traditional picture of scientific knowledge into a cocked hat? Is philosophy of science, or mistaken impressions of it, responsible for the rise of relativism? In Science and Relativism, Larry offers a trenchant, wide-ranging critique of cognitive relativism and a thorough introduction to majorissues in the philosophy of knowledge.

This work seeks to show that science is rooted not just in conversation but in disagreement, doubt and uncertainty. Mara Beller argues that it is precisely this culture of dialogue and controversy within the scientific community that fuels creativity.

Ten papers by prominent philosophers of science which challenge van Fraassen's thesis from a variety of realist perspectives. Together with van Fraassen's extensive reply, the articles provide a comprehensive picture of the current debate in philosophy of science between realists and anti-realists.

A consideration of whether scientific knowledge is objective and universal or socially mediated, whether scientific truths are independent of human values and beliefs.

A history of population ecology which traces two generations of science and scientists from the opening of the 20th century through to 1970. The text chronicles the careers of key figures and the field's theoretical, empirical and institutional development.

Featuring a figure of early modern science, this text explores Robert Boyle's philosophy of experiment, a central aspect of his life and work. Philosophical, legal, experimental and religious traditions that played a part in shaping Boyle's experimental thought and practice are examined.

In this introduction to philosophy of biology, Kim Sterelny and Paul E. Griffiths present both the science and the philosophical context necessary for a critical understanding of the debates shaping biology at the end of the 20th century.