The critical tradition and some of its discontents

pp. 19-73

in: Robert Nola, Rescuing reason, Berlin, Springer, 2003

Abstract

One of the cornerstones of much philosophy is the idea that it has a critical tradition, and that this tradition has informed our general knowledge, science, mathematics and even philosophy itself. Also the tradition has not remained static and given once and for all, but has grown and developed alongside these subjects. The earliest aspects of the critical tradition, as they arise in Western philosophy (but also elsewhere), can be found in the Presocratic philosophers, Plato and Aristotle. Since then, the tradition has grown and developed in the course of the history of philosophy and science, sometimes strongly, sometimes fitfully. How some contemporary philosophers of science have understood aspects of this tradition is outlined in sections 1.1 and 1.2. Some of the detractors from the tradition are discussed in section 1.3. They include some sociologists of scientific knowledge and postmodernists, with other leading detractors being left for discussion in Parts II, III and IV. Some philosophers of science, such as Kuhn and Feyerabend, have also been thought to be renegades from the critical tradition. However as the final two sections 1.4 and 1.5 argue, the critical tradition can be understood broadly enough to contain Kuhn's position, and a good deal of Feyerabend's position, without it being undermined by either.