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Contents
Preface
vii
Preface to the Third Edition Inoducon to the Chinese Edion
1
Analyca Index
ntroducon
Parts1-20
14
Postscript on Relativism
268
ndex
273
Preface
In 1970 Imre Lakatos, one of the best friends I ever had, coered me at a party. 'Paul he said, 'you have such stange deas. Why dont you write them down? down? shal write write a reply, we publsh the whole thng thng and ots of fun. I liked the suggeson suggeson and promise you - we shal have ots staed working. The manuscript of my pa of the bk was nshed n 1 972 and sent it to London. There t dsappeared under ather mysterious circumstances. me Lakatos, who loved dramac gestures, noed nteol and, ndeed Inteol found my manu script and retued it to me. I eead it and made some nal changes. In Februa 1 974 only a few weeks after I had nshed my revsion, was informed informed of Imres death. I published my pa of ou common enterise without his response. A year later I publshed a second volume, volume, Scece a Free Soe, containing addiona material and reples to cricism. his histo explains the fom of the book It is not a systemac ease; it s a letter to a friend and addresses hs idiosyncrases. For example, mre Lakatos was a raonalist, hence raonaism plays a large role n the book. He also admired Popper and therefore Popper occurs much more frequently than his 'objecve impotance woud warant. Imre Lakatos, somewhat oingy, caled me an anarchist and I had no obecon to putng on the anarchsts mask. Finally, mre Lakatos loved to embarass serious opponents with okes and irony and so I too, casionaly wrote n a rather ironical vein. An exampe s the end of Chapter 1 'anythng goes is not a 'principe I hold do do not think that 'principles can be used and fruitfully discussed outside the concrete research situaon they are supposed to aect - but the tered exclamaon exclamaon of of a aonaist who takes takes a coser look at histo. Reading the many thorough seous, loninded and thoroughly misguided cricsms I receved after pubicaon pubicaon of o f the rst Engish Engi sh edion I often recaled my exchanges with mre how we would both have laughed had we been able to read these eusions together. together. The new edion merges parts AgastMethod excets fom Scce a Free Soce. I have omtted material no longer of interest,
PRFAC
added a chapter on the al of Galleo and a chapter on the noon of realty that seems to be required by the fact that knowledge s part of a complex historcal process eliminated mstakes shortened the agument wheeve possibe and freed it from some of its earler dosyncases Agan I want to make make two points: st that scence can stand on its own feet and does not need any hep from raonaists secular humansts Marxists and simla eligous movements and secondy that nonscenc cultues pocedures and assumpons can also stand on thei own feet and shoud be allowed to do so if ths is the wish of thei epesentaves Science must be potected fom ideologes and siees especay democac socees must be potected fom scence Ths does not mean that sciensts cannot prot fom a phlosophcal educaon and that humanty has not and never will prot fom the sciences However the prots shoud not be mposed they shoud be examined and freey accepted by the paes of the exchange In a democacy scienc instuons reseach progres es and suggesons must theefore be subjected to publc cono thee must be a sepaaon of state and scence just as thee is a sepaaon between state and eigous instuons and science should be taught as one vew among many and not as a s the one and only oad to tuth and reaty Thee is nothing in the atue of science that excludes such nstuona aangements o sows that they ae lable to lead to dsaste None of the ideas that undelie my agument s new My interpetaon of scenc knowledge fo example was a vaty for physcsts lke Mach Bolmann Einstein and Boh But the deas of these great thnes were dstorted beyond ecogon by the t he rodents of neoposivsm and the compeng rodents of the chuch ofcrcal aonalsm Lakatos was ae Kuhn one of the few thnes who noced the dscepancy and ed to emate it by means of a compex and vey inteesng theoy of aonalty I dont t he has succeeded in ths But the attempt was woth the eort it as ed to inteesng esuts n the hstoy of science and to new nsghts into the mts of eason I theefore dedcate aso this second already much more lonely veson of ou common common wok to hs memo Eale material elang to the problems n this boo is now colected in my Phloshl Pape 1 Farewel to Reo contans historical material especiay from the ealy histoy of aonalsm n the West and appicaons to the poblems of today Bekeley Septembe 1987 1 v, v, Camb Cambd dge ge 8 8 . London 87.
Preface to the Third Edion
Many things have happened since I rst published Agast Method M for short). There have been dramac polical, sial and ecological changes. Freedom has increased - but it has brought hunger, insecurity, naionalisc ensions, wars and saightfoard murder. World leaders have met to deal with the deterioraon of our resources; as is ther habit, they have made speeches and sgned agreements The agreements are far from saisfactory some of them are a sham. However, a least verbally, he environment has become a worldwide conce. Physicians, developmental agents, priests woring with he poor and disadvantaged have realized that hese people now more about their condion han a belief n the universal excellence of science or organzed relgion had assumed and they have changed ther acons and heir ideas accordingly (lberaon heology primary envronmental care, etc) Many ntelectuals have adapted what they have leaed at universies and special schoos o mae their nowledge more ecient and more humane On a more academic leel historians (of science, of culture) have started approachng he past in its own terms. ready in 33 n hs naugural lecture at he Collge de France, Lucien Febvre had ridiculed writers who, stng at their dess, behind mountans of paper, having closed and coered their windows, made profound judgements about the life of landhoders, peasants and farmhands In a narrow ed historians of scence tried o reconsuct the dstant and the more immedate past without distorng it by mode beiefs about truth (fact) and raonality Philosophers then concluded hat he arious forms of raonaism that had oered heir seices had not only produced chmaeras but would hae damaged the sciences ad they been adopted as guides. Here Kuhns masterpiece played a ecisive role.1 It ed to new ideas. Unforunately it aso encouraged lots of trash Kuhns main terms (paradigm, reoluon, normal The Srucure fSc Rui Chago
PRFAC TO TH TH R D D T O N
science, 'prescience, 'anomay, 'pzzesong, etc) ted p n arios forms of psedoscience while hs genera approach confsed many writers nding that scence had been freed from the fettes of a dogmac ogc and epstemoo they ed to e t down again ths me with siooca ropes That end asted we into the eay seenes By conast there are now historians and sociolosts who concenate on pacas and aow generaies ony to the extent that they are sppoted by sohstorica conneconsNatre says Brno ato efering to scence in the makng s 'the conseqence of [a] settement ofconoesies 2 O as I wote in the rst edon of 'Ceaon of a thg, and ceaon pls f nderstanding of a coe a of the thing are ve o pas ofoe ad the same dsble procs and cannot be sepaated wthot bringing the press to a stop 3 Exampes of the new appoach ae Andew ickering, ostg Qar eter Galson, ow Eemts Ed Man Rdwick e Great Doa otey thr Fine he Sha Game and othes. 4 Thee ae stdies of the arios adions (relgios stylsc aonage etc) that nenced scensts and shaped their esearch5 they show the need fo a fa moe compex accont of scienc knowedge than that which had emeged from posiism and sima phosophes On a moe genea leel we hae the ode wok of Mcha olanyi and then am an Faassen, Cartwight Marcelo era6 and yes mre akatos, who was scenty opmisc to belee that histo herselfa lady he took e seriosly oeed siple les of theo ealaon. In socology the attenon to detail has led to a sitaon where the problem is no onger why and how 'science changes bt how t keeps together hilosophers, philosophers of biology especialy sspected for some me that there s not one enty 'science with cleary dened principes bt that science contans a eat ariety of (hgh eel theorecal phenomenolocal, experimental) approaches and that een a parclar science sch as physcs is bt a scattered coecon of sbjects (elascity hydrodynamcs, rheology thermo dynamics, etc etc) each one containing cona tendencies (exampe randt s Helmholtz Ken, amb, Rayleigh Tesdell i in Aion Milton Keyne 1 87 pp 4 nd 8 London 1 75 p. , repeted on p. 17 o the preent edion - orgnl emphi 4 All Chgo Unverity Pre 5 An exmple i Mro Bigoli G oui ohoming. . i Rhto ohomng.
PRAC O H H R D D ION
vs Pandtl irkho vs 'phsical ommonsense Knsman ilusang a trends in hdodYamis). For some authors this is not onl a fat it s also desirabe 7 Here again I onbuted, in a smal wa, in Chapters 3 and 1 1 of 8 in secon 6 of m contribuon to akatos and Musgraves Cticism and the Growth of Knowledge (ism of the uniformit of paradigms in Kuhn) 9 and alread n 1 962, n m conbuon to the Delaware Studies r the Philoshy of
Scice. 10
Unit further disappeas when we pa attenon not onl to breaks on the theoecal eve, but to experiment and, especiall, to mode aboato scence As Ian Hacing has shown in his pathbreaing essa Rresting and ntin 1 and as emeges fom Pickeings Scice Price and Culture terms suh as 'experiment and 'obseaon cove ompex pesses containng man sands Facts come fom negoaons between derent paes and the nal product - the publshed report - s nuenced b phscal events, datapocessos, compomises, exhauson ack of mone, naonal pide and so on Some mcostudes of laboato scene resemble the 'New Jouasm of Jmm Besn, Gu Talese, Tom olfe and othes reseachers no longer sit back and ead the papers n a certain eld the ae not content with sent visits to aboatories either- the walk right in engage sciensts in conversaon and make thngs happen (Kuhn and hs collaboatos started the predue n the ntervews for the hsto of quantum mechanics) At an ate we are a long wa fom the old (Platonc) dea of science as a sstem of statements growg with experiment and obseaon and kept n oder b asng aonal standads s sl patl poposon oriented howeve I also had m sane moments M dscusson of incommensuabilt for example, does not 'reduce the dierence to one of theo as Pckeg writes 13 It ncudes art forms, pecepons (a lage part of Chapter 1 6 is about the anson fom Geek geometric art and poe to the cassical period), stages of child development and asserts 'that the vews of scensts and especall the views on basc matters ae often as deent fom each othe as are the ideooges of dieent 7. J. Dp, h Dsn oSn Mind , 8 8 Psn don kn ov nmndd fom s don. . I. Lkos nd A. Msve eds, Cim and he Gwh of Knowedge Cmbdge, I5. How o be d mps' Dewa Sudi ol. , I Cmbridge, I 983
A Pkeng ed, Sie Prie ad Cuure Chgo, 13 bd. , p. 0.
Xtt
PRFAC O H H R D D O N
cultures'.14 In this connecon I examned the praccal aspecs of logic, the way, that is, in whch ideas are reated to each other in ongoing research rather than in the nished products (i there ever are such producs) My discussion of the many evens that constute what is beng obseed5 and especialy my discussion of Gaileos telescopic discoveies6 agree with the requiremens of the new aboratoy sioogy except that Galileo's laboratoy' was rather small by compaison This case shows, incdentally, that like the older philosophies of science the new microsociolo is not a universal account but a descipon of promnent aspecs of a specal peiod. It does not matter A unversal descipon of scence at any rate can at most oer a list o evens7 It was derent in anqui. It s cear that the new stuaon requires a new philosophy and, above al, new terms Yet some of the foremost researchers in the area are sl asng themselves whether a parcuar pece o research produces a dscovey', o an nvenon', o to what extent a (temporay) result is objecve The problem arose in quantum mechancs; it is also a poblem fo classical science Shall we connue usng ouoded terms to descibe novel insght or would t not be better to start using a new language? And wouldnt poes and jouaists be of great hep in nding such a language? Secondly, the new stuaon agan raises the queson of scence vs democracy For me this was the most mportant queson My man reason o wing the book', I say n the Inoducon o the Chinese Edion,18 was humanitaran, not intellectua wanted to support people, no to "advance knowledge' Now if science is no longer a unt, if derent pats of it proceed in radically dierent ways and if connecons between these ways are ed to parcular research episodes, then scienc projects have to be taken indiviually This is what govement agencies started doing some me ago. n the at sxes the idea of a comprehensive science poicy was gradualy abandoned. t was realized tha science was not one but many eneises and that thee could be no singe poicy or the support of al of them9 Goveent agencies no longer nance science', they nance parcula projects. But then the wod scienc' can no onger exclude unscienc' projecs - we have to look at matters in 14. t edion, p. 27 ibid, pp 4. Reprinted in he preen edition . Chpte 8 to 0 of he preen edion. 7 Cf my onbuon to he 2 rmu Symium, H he Sien View of he World Si Stu Compred Wih Oher View, fohoming. 8. Contined in he preent edion 1 J. BenDvid, St Gwth Bereley, p 2
P R A C O H H R D D O N
Xttt
detl e the new phlosophes nd socolosts peped to consde ths consequence of the esech? hee hve been mny othe chnes Medcl eseches nd technolosts hve not only nvented usefu nstuments (such s those empon the pncpes of be opcs whch n mny contexts eplce the moe dneous methods of Xy dnostc) but hve become moe open towds new (o olde) des Ony twenty yes o the de tht the mnd ects physcl wellben, thouh suppoted by expeence, ws the unpopu tody t s mnstem Mlpcce suts hve mde physcns moe ceful, somemes too ceful fo the ood of the pent, but they hve lso foced them to consut lteve opnons (In Swtzelnd belleent plulty of vews s lmost pt of cultue nd I used t when nn publc confontons between hdheded scensts nd lteve' thnkes2 Howeve, hee s elsewhee, smple phlosophes, whethe of domc o moe lbel knd hve the lmts There are no general solutions n ncesed lbelsm n the denon of fct' cn hve ve epecussons/ whe the de tht uth s conceled nd even peeted b the pocesses tht e ment to estblsh t mkes excellent sense2 I theefoe n w the ede tht I don't hve the ntenon of eplcn ld nd domc pncpes by new nd moe lbetn ones o exmpe, I m nethe popust fo whom n ppe to the people s the bss of l knowede, no elvst fo whom thee e no uths s such' but ony tuths fo ths o tht oup no ndvdul l I sy s tht nonexpets often know moe thn experts and should therre be consulted nd tht pophets of uth (ncudn those who use uments) moe often thn not e ced lon by vson tht clshes wth the ve events the vson s supposed to be expon hee ests mple evdence fo both pts of ths sseron cse I ledy menoned s development: pofessons den wth the ecooc, socl nd medc pts of development d hve by now elzed tht the mposon of on' o scenc pocedues, thouh occsonlly benec (emovl of some pstes nd nfecous dseses), cn led to seous mte nd
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C e ee eded y Can oma and mye and pubed y e
Velag der Fachvereine Zuich 1 983-87.
1 C Pee W Hube, Gie' Rge New Yok, 11 Fo a onal aoun, Tom Woe e Bre e Vii� New Yok 187 .
xiv
PRAC O H H RD D O N
spiiual poblems They did not abandon what they had eaed in thei univesies howeve; they combined ths knowledge wth ocal beies and cusoms and theeby establshed a much needed ik wth the poblems o lie tha suound us evehee n the Fist Second and Thid Wolds The pesent edion contains majo changes (Chape 1 9 and part o Chapte 1 6 have been ewitten the old Chapte 20 has been omitted) addions (a paagaph hee a paagaph thee), stylisc changes ( I hope they ae mpovemens) and coecons as wel as addons in the eeences. As a as I am conceed the man deas o the essay (e the deas expessed in talcs n the Inoucon to the Chinese Edon) ae athe iva and appea val when expessed in suitabe tems I pee moe paadoca ouaons howeve, o nothng dulls the mnd as thooughy as heaing ama wods and sogans It is one o the meits o deconsucon to have unemned phosophical commonpaces and thus to have mae some peope thnk Unortunately it aected ony a sma cce o insides and it aected them in ways that ae not always cea, not even o them Tha's why I pee Nesoy, who was a geat, popula and unny deconstructeu, while Deida, o al his good ntenons, can't even tell a sto RomeJuly 1992
Inroduion o he Chinese Ediion Ths ook poposes a thesis and daws consequences fom it The thesis is the ents procedur and rults that constitute the scences he no common sture; thee ae no elements that occu in evey scienc nvesgaon ut ae missng elsewhee. Concete develop ments (such as the ovethow of steady state cosmologies and the discovey of the suctue of DNA) have disnct featues and we can often explain why and how these featues ed to success. But not eve discove can e accounted fo n the same manne, and pedues that paid off n the past may ceate havoc when imposed on the futue Successful eseach does not oey genea standads; t elies now on one ick now on anothe; the moves that advance t and the standads that dene what counts as an advance ae not aways known to the moves Faeaching changes of outook, such as the socaled Copeican Revoluon' o the Dainian Revoluon aect deent aeas of eseach n deent ways and eceive dieent impulses fom them A theo of science that devises standads and stuctua elements fo a scienc acves and authozes them y efeence to Reason o Raonaity' may mpess outsides ut t is much too cude an nstument fo the people on the spot, that is fo sciensts facing some concete eseach polem In ths ook I t to suppot the thess y hstocal exampes. Such suppot does not tablish it; it makes t plausible and the way in which it is eached indcates how futue statements aout the natue of science may e undemined given any ule o any genea statement aout the sciences thee aways est developments which ae paised y those who suppot the ule t whch show that the ule does moe damage than good One consequence of the thesis is that scentc successes cannot be lained in a simple way. We cannot say the stuctue of the atomc nucles was fond ecase people dd A, B C . wher A, B and C �e pocedes whch can e ndestood independentl of thei se l nclea physcs. All we can do is to give a histocal accont of the
A A N S M H O D
dtails, icludig sial cicumstacs, accidts ad prsal idisycasis Ath csquc is that the success of'scce cannot be used
an amt r treating yet unsoed probls in a stanrded way Tha culd d ly if th a pdurs that ca dtachd fm pacula sach situas ad whs psc aats succss Th thsis says that th a such prcdus Rfrg t th succss f scic i d jus, say quaig huma havur is thrfr a armt wthut sustac Quaca wr i sm cass, fails i thrs; f xampl it a it difculs i f th apparly mst quatav f all scics, csal mchaics (spcial rgi staility f th pata systm) ad was pacd y qualitav (tpgical) csidas It as fllws that 'non-sctcprocedur cannot bepushedi aumt T say th prcdur yu usd is scic thfr w cat ust yur rsults ad cat gv yu my fr sarch assums that scic is succssful ad that it is succss caus it uss uifm prcdurs Th rst part f th ass (scic is always succsful) is t u, if y scic w ma thigs d y sciss - thr ar ts f failus als. Th scd part that succsss ar du t uifm pcdurs is t u caus th ar such pdurs. Scists a li achitcts wh uild uldigs f dit sizs ad difft shaps ad wh ca judgd ly aer th vt, i ly aft thy hav ishd thi suctur It may stad up, it may fal dw - dy ws But if scic achivmts ca judgd ly aftr th vt ad if th is asac way f suig succss fhad, th thr ss spcial way f wighig scic prmiss ith scists a ttr tha aydy ls i ths mattrs, thy ly w m dails. This mas tha the public n paipate in the discussion without disturbing isting ro to succs (th a such ads I cass whr th sciss wr acs th puic it v should pacipa s, caus i is a ccd paty (may scic dcisis ac pulic if); scdly, caus such pacipa is th s scic duca th puic ca gt a full dmcraza f scic (which icluds th prtc f mis such as sciss is t clict wth scic It is i clc wth a phlsphy, ft cald Raalism, that uss a fz imag f scic tiz pp ufamliar wth its pracc A csquc t which I alud i Chapt 9 ad whch is csy cctd wth its asic thsis s that there can be many d t kin ofscce Pp stag frm dirt sia ackgruds will
N RO DUC O N O H C H NS D O N
appoach the wold n deent ways and lea dieent thngs aout it. People suived millennia efoe Weste science aose; to do this they had to know thei suoundings up to and ncuding elements of astonomy Seveal thousand Cuahula Indians neve exhausted the natual esouces of a deset egon in South Califoa in whch today only a handful of white famies manage to susist They lived in a land of penty fo in ths aaently competely aen teto they wee famlia wth no ess than sixty nds of edile pants and twentyeight othes of nacoc smuant o medica popees The knowledge that pesees the lifestyles of nomads was acquied and is peseed in a nonscienc way (science now eng mode natual science) Chinese technoo fo a long me acked any Westescenc undepinnng and yet t was fa ahead of contempoa Weste technolo It is tue that Weste science now eigns supeme all ove the goe howeve the eason was not insight in its inheent aonalty ut powe play (the coonizng naons imposed thei ways of livng) and the need fo weapons: Weste science so fa has ceated the most ecient insuments of death he emak that without Weste science many Thid Wod naons would e stavng is coect ut one should add that the oues wee ceated not alevated y ealie foms of develop ment. It is also ue that Weste medicine heped eadicate paasites and some infecous diseases ut this does not show that Weste science is the only adion that has good things to oe and that othe foms of inqui ae wthout any meit whatsoeve Fit wor science is one science mong mn y claimng to e moe it ceases to e an instument of eseach and tus into a (polical) pessue goup Moe on these mattes can e found in my ook Frewe to eson
My main move in wing the ook was humanitaian not intellectual I wanted to suppot people not to advance knowledge People all ove the wold have developed ways of suvvng in patly dangeous patly ageeale suoundings The stoies they tod and the acvies they engaged in eniched thei ives potected them and gave them meaning The pogess of knowledge and civzaon as the pocess of pushng Weste ways and values into all coes of the gloe is eing caled desoyed these wondeful poducts of human ingenuity and compassion wthout a single glance in thei diecon Pogess of knowledge in many places meant ing of minds oday old tadions ae eing evived and people ty again to adapt C LSu, The Sage Mind London, , f 2. London, 87
AANS MTHOD
hei lies o he ideas of hei ancesos I hae ied o sho y an analysis of he appaenly hades pas of science he naal sciences ha science popely ndesood has no agumen agains such a pocedue Thee ae many scienss ho ac accodingly Physicans anhopologiss and enionmenaliss ae sang o adap hei pocedues o he ales of he people hey ae spposed o adise I am no agains a science so ndesood Sch a science is one of he mos ondefl inenons of he hman mind B I am agains ideologies ha se he name of science fo culal mde
Analycal Index Being Skch ohe Min Am
c
Sci is n sl nchic ee heoeil nchm is moe humnin n moe like o cougepos hn is w-n-o l
1 T shown boh n minion o ho·l iso n n bs nls ohe relion bwe i n ion Te on pnciple h es no inhibi pess is oes.
Fo mple we m use hpoh h conri wel-cone heo nor weesblishe eml ruls We m nce sci pceeing counenue
Te cois coniion which mn h new hoh ee wih ce eoes is unesonble beuse i pr he ol heo n no he beer heo Hpoh niing wel-cone heo e us ince h cnno be obine in oher w Polion o heo is bcilr scice while uni impi is cil power Uni o nge heee elm ohe iniul
ee is no i how nci n bsu h is no cpble o imping our knowlege Te whole hiso ohough is bsoe ino sce n use r imping single heo No poliicl ineece ree I m be nee o ercome he chinism osce h resiss l o he sus quo o heo er e wih l hes in is min e i no lws he heo h is o bme Fs e nsiue o ilo n csh 5
A A N S T M TH O D
betwe n theo m be prooopgr It i o t t in our ttpt ton theprincip impicit inmiir obetion notion
7
A n mpe ouch n ttpt I mine the tower argument which the Aritotein ue to rute the motion othe eh. Te mt io natural nterpretaons i o oe connee with obetion tht it nee peci to ree their itce n to teine their contt. Gieo int the ntur interettion which re inconitt with Ci n rc th othe Te n ntur interettion contitute new n high btr obetion nge h re introuce and concealed o tht onei to notice the chnge tht h tkp ce metho onmni T contin the i othe elavi of all moon n the law of cicula inea.
In ition to ntur interettion Geo o chng sensaons tht e to nger Ci He mit tht there re uch tion he pri Ci r hing iregr th he im to he re th with the hep othe telescope How he o no theoecal reon wh the tece hou be ee to ve tepiure othe 9 86 Nor the initi experence with the tecepi uch reon Te t tecic obetion o the re initin inteinte ntrio n in coni with wht one n ee with hi uni An the on theo tht cou he hepe to rte tecic iuionm vicphom w rute impe tt
On the other hn the re ome tecic phom which re pin Cicn. Gieo intuc the phom int ince r Ci whie the itution i rth tht one rute view Cinim h cein imi with phom engm noth rute vi the i tht tepic phom re ith img othe Such ition ' metho o uppo re nee beue o the un emt ' M Lin otp ocice. Cinim n oth ti ingreit omo cice ue on becue reon wrequt ee in their pt
A N A L Y I C A L I N D X
5
5
4
Geo metho wok in othee s we. Fo mpe it n be use to eiminte the isting mts ginst mteism n to put n to the phiosophica minbo pob the poning scienc pbs in untouche how. It notow tht it shou be une ie he Chuch t the time oGieo not on kt cose to eson s ne th n in p now it so consie the ethic n so consequc oGeo 's views. Its inimt oGeo w tion n on ounism n ck opepee cn mn ision Gieo 's inqui e on sm p othe so-ce Cin oution Aing the ining e mkes it sti moe t to econe the emt withmii pnp otheo ution. Te uts obtine so suest bohing the tinion betwe contt o isce n contt o justction nos n s obsetion ts n theoeti tes None othe istinions ps oe in stc pice Attpts to ce th wou he istous consequc P 's cti tionmi the sme esons
Appe
59
64
Fin the kin ocompson tht uni most methoo is possibe on in some the simpe es. It bek wn wh we t to mpe nonscitc views with scice n wh we consi the most n most g n the most mthooc ps oscice itse
Appe
4
Neith scice no tioni e une mesues ocece T e i titions unwe othei histoc uning
Yet it is possibe to ute stn otioni n to impe th e pncip o impt e neithe be tition no bon chnge n it is impossibe to ni th
8
A A N S M H O D
8 19 Sie is neiher a single raiin nr he bes raiin here is r pele wh hve beme asme is pre is bs an is isaanag In a ma i shul be saraefrm he sae jus hurh are nw saraem he sae.
5
e pin fview unring his bk i n he rul fa we-planne rain fhugh bu fams prmpe inal un. Ang a he wann in flural his frm whih we a ul hve leae a he neie surane wih whih sme ineeuals inee wih he lves fpele an npfr he re phr h use beh heir mise w an si is he mvere behin my wrk.
Inoducon Se an sal anah ee heel anahm me humanaan an me ke uageps han w-an- ala.
Ordnung ist euutage meistens do wo nicts it E it eine Mangeeceinung BCHT
The foowng essay s wtten n the convcon that anahsm, while perhaps not the most atacve plal phlosophy, s certany exceent medicne for eml and fo the phlshy fse The eason is not dicult to nd Histo generay, and the hsto of revouon n parcua, s always che n content, more vaed, more manysded, more vey and subte than even' the best histoan and the best methodoogist can iagine. Hsto s full of accdents and conjunctures and cuous juxtaposons of events2 and t demonsates to us the complety of human change and the unpredictabe characte of the ulmate consequences of any given act or decson of men. 3 Ae we eay to believe that the nave and simpemnded rles whch methodologists take a ther gude are capable of accounng for such a maze of nteracons?4 And s t not clear that successful l Htry whe, nd the htry f revln n cr, lwy rcher n cntent, mre vred, mre mlf, mre lvely nd nen thn mned by even the bet e, the mt cnc vnrd f the mt dvnced cle' Lenn, LeWn Cmmnm n nfnle Drder', Seeed o Vl , Lndn, 97, ) Lenn ddren e nd revln vnrd rer h et nd methlt the len, hwever, the me Cf fte 2 Herber Bttereld, The g Inereon ofHo ew Yr, 9, bd, 2 bd, 2, cf Hee, Phoshe Ghhe e V 9 , ed dwrd n, Berln, 87, 9: Bt wh exerence nd ht tech th, tht n nd
0
NST METHOD
paipain i a pocess o this id is possible oly o a uthless
oppotuist who is ot ed to ay pacula philosophy ad who adopts whatee pocedue seems to t the occasio? This is ideed the coclusio that has bee daw by itelliget ad thoughtul obsees Two ey impotat paccal coclusios ollow om this [chaacte o the histoical pocess]' wites Lei5 couig the passage om which I hae just quoted Fist that i ode to ul its tas the eoluoay cass [ie the cass o those who wat to chage eithe a pat o society such as sciece o society as a whoe must be able to maste a oms o aspects o social acity without ecepo [it must be able to udestad ad to appy ot oly oe pacula methodology but ay methodology ad ay aiao theeo it ca imagie . secod [it must be eady to pass om oe to aothe i the quicest ad most uexpected mae' The eteal codios wites Eistei 6 which ae set o [the sciest] by the acts o expeiece do ot pemit him to let himsel be too much esticted i the cosuco o his coceptual wold by the adheece to a epistemological system. He theeoe must appea to the systemac epistemologist as a type o uscupulous oppotuist. . A complex medium cotaiig suisig ad uoesee deeopmets demads complex pocedues ad dees aalysis o the basis o ules which gvement ve never leed yig frm t r cted ccrdig le t mgt ve derved frm t Every erd uc eculr crcmtce n uc dvdl te tt deci wl e be mde nd decn an nly e mde i nd t f it' - Very cever'; rewd d very cever'; B' wrte Le n mrgi te t t ge Colleed or V 8 Ld 07. . bd We ee ere very clerly w few btn c t icl le nt le fr meholo Ti i t l urig Med nd lc re t me fr mvng frm e trcl tge t nter We ee w n ndvdl c Len w t mded by trdi bndre d we ugt t ted t te del f ricur rfei c gie eful dvce t everye ler f cence cded te t cent e de f elc d itrcly nfed metd w mter f cure T t Mc wrte n b rnni und um eudc Wencftce Bcgeell cf Dd 80 2: t fte d tt reerc cnt be tugt Tt te cect n certn ee. Te cem fgic d f indue gic re flittle ue fr e itelecu u re eer excty te me. Bt te exmle f gret cent re very ggeve' Tey re ggeve becue we c bct re frm tem nd ubject fure reerc t ter jrdc; tey re ggeve bece tey me e mnd mbe d cble f nveg erey ew reerc trdi r mre deted cct f Mc' y ee my ey Farell o eon Lnd 87 Cter 7 wel V 2, Cer nd f my Philohial Pap Cmbrdge 8 . lbe Ente Albe inein Philoh Si ed P. Scl New Yr 8f
NTODCTON
have been set up in advance and without regard to the ever-changng condions of history. Now it is, of course possible to simplthe medum in whch a ienst works by simpiing its main actors The history of science after all, does not just consist of facts and conclusions drawn from facs. t aso contains ideas, interpretations offacts probems created by conlicng interpretaons, mistaes, and so on On coser anaysis we even nd that science knows no 'bare facts at a but that the 'facts that enter our knowedge are aready viewed in a certain way and are, therefore, essenay deaona This being the case, the history of science wi be as compex chaoc, fu of mistaes and entertaining as the ideas it contains, and these ideas n tu wi be as complex, chaoc, ful of mistaes and entertaining as are the minds of those who invented them Conversey a ite brainwashing wi go a ong way in mang the histo of science duler simper, more uniform, more 'objecve and more easiy accessibe to treaent by strict and unchangeabe rues. Scienc educaon as we know it today has precisey this aim. It simplies science by simpiing is parcipans: rst, a doman of esearch is dened. The domain is separated from the rest of history (physics for exampe, is separated from metaphysics and from theology) and gven a 'ogc of its ow A thorough aining in such a 'ogc then condions those working in the domain; it maes heir ins moe uniform and it freezes arge parts of the hisrialprs as we. Stabe 'facts arise and persevere despite the vicssitudes of hsto. essena part of the training that maes such facs appear consiss in the attempt to inhibit intuions that might ea to a burring of bounaries A persons reigon for eample, or his metaphysics, or his sense of humour (hs naural sense of humour an not the inbre and aways rather nasty kind of ocularity one ns n speciaized pofessions) must not have the sightest connecon wth his scienc acvty His imagnaon is resained, an even his language ceases to be his ow This is again relected in the natue of scienc 'facts which are experenced as being indepenent of opinion, beief, an cutura backgroun It is thus pssible to create a tradion that is he together by strict rues and that is aso successfu to some extent But is it sirable to sup port such a tradion to the excusion of everything ese? Shoul we ransfer to it the soe righs for ealing in knowedge so that any resut that has been obtained by other methos is at once rued out of ourt And did sciensts ever remain within the boundaries of the �radions ey dened in this narrow way? These are the quesons nend to ask n the pesent essay And to these questions my answer w be a rm and esounding NO
AGANS T METD
There are two reasons why such an answer seems to be appropriate. The rst reason is tat te world which we want to expore s a largey unknown enty We must, terefore, keep our opons open and we must not resct ouseves n advance. Epistemoogical pescripons may ook splendid when compaed wt ote epistemoogical prescripons, o wt general principles but who can guarantee tat tey ae te best way to discove, not just a few soated 'facts, but also some deep-lyg secrets of nature? The second eason s tat a scienc educaon as described above (and as pacsed in ou schoos) cannot be econciled wt a humanitarian attude. It s in conlict 'wit te culvaon of individuality which aone poduces, o can produce, welldeveloped human beings;7 it mas by compresson, ike a Chinese ladys foot, eve pat of human natue which stands out pominenty, and tends to make a person makedy dierent in outine8 fom te deals of aonality tat happen to be fashionabe in science, o in te philosophy of science. The attempt to incease berty, to lead a full and rewarding ife, and te corresponding attempt to discover te secrets of nature and of man, entais, terefore, te reecon of universal standards and of all rigid adions (Naturay, t also entais te reecon of a arge pat of contempora science) It is surising to see how rarely te stuling eect of 'te Laws of Reason or of scenc pracce s examined by professional anarchists Professional anarchists oppose any knd of resicon and tey demand tat te indvdual be permitted to deveop freey, unhampered by aws, dues or obigaons d yet tey swallow wthout protest a te severe standards which sciensts and ogicians mpose upon research and upon any ind of knowedgecreang and knowledgechanging acvity Occasonay, te laws of scienc method or what are tought to be te aws of scienc metod by a pacuar writer, are even integrated into anarchsm tsef 'archism is a word concept based upon a mechancal explanaon of a phenomena, writes Kropotin9 Its method of nvesgaon is 7 John Stua Mil, n Libey in The Philo oohn S Mi ed. Maha Cohen, New York, , p 28. 8 ibid., p 2 . Peter Aleeih Krotkn, Mode Siene and Anarhism, Kokin Rlui Pamphle ed RW. Bdwin, New York, 70 pp. 2. It s one of
Ibsens great dsnons that nothng was id for hm but siene.' B. haw, B o Meheh New York, 2, p. Commenng on these and smar phenomena ndberg wrtes nibaa A generaon that had the ourage o ge id of o sh the ste and hurh, and to oehrow siey and moray sl wed before iene And in iene, where feedom ought to regn, the orde of the day was beee n the authoies or owith your head"
NODUCON
that of the exact natura sciences the method of nducon and deducon0t is not so cear, writes a mode radica professor at Coumba that scenc research demands an absoute freedom of speech and debateRather the evidence suggests that certan kinds of unfreedom pace no obstace in the way of science ' There are certainy some peope to whom ths s not so cear Let us, therefore, start wth our outine of anarchisc methodoogy and a corresponding anarchsc science There s no need to fear that the dmnshed conce for aw and order i science and socety that characteres an anarchism of this knd wil lead to chaos The human neous system s too wel organied for that1 There may, of course, come a me when t will be necessay to gve reason a temporay advantage and when it w be wise to defend ts rules to the excusion of everything ese do not thnk that we are living in such a me today2
10 .P Wo, The P ofLbam Boston, 18 p. 1 For a rism of Wol see fote 2 of my essay Agains Method n Mnnoa S n he Phh ofSe Vol. , Minneapols 170 Een n undetermned and ambious stuaons uniform of aon is sn
ahieed and adhered o tenaiousy. See Muzafer Sherif e Pho ofSo No New York 1 12 hs was my opnon in 170 when I oe he rs erson ofths essay. mes hae canged Consderng some tendenes in US eduaon (polialy oe, aademic menus et.) n pilosopy (posodeism) and in he world a large thnk that reason sould now be gen greater weight not beause it is and always was fundamenal but beause seems o be needed in rumstanes tha ur rather freueny oday (but may disappear tomoow) to reate a more umane approa
s sh bh an amnan f hsl s an an absra anass fhe relan bewe a an n e n pnple ha n nhb pgrs s anytng goes
Te dea o a metod tat contans n uncanging and absoutey bndng prncipes or conducng te business o scence meets considerabe dcul wen conronted wit te resuts o storca researc We nd ten tat tere is not a snge le owever pausbe and owever rmy grounded n epstemoo tat s not vioated at some me or oter t becomes evident tat suc vioaons are not accdenta events tey are not resuts o insucent knowedge or o nattenon wc gt ave been avoided On te conary we see tat tey are necessary or pro gress. ndeed one o te most strkng eatures o recent discussions n te story and posopy o scence s te realzaon tat events and deveopments suc as te invenon o atomsm in anqu te Copeican Revouon te rse o mode atosm (kinetc teory dispersion teory stereoces quantum teory) te gradua emergence o te wave teory o gt occurred ony because some tinkers eiter not to be bound by certan 'obvous metodoogca es or because tey unwng brke tem Tis beal pracce repeat is not ust a fa o te story o scence. t is bot reasonable and abslue nesa or te growt o knowledge More speccaly one can sow te olowng: gen any e owever 'undamenta or 'raonal tee are aways cir cumstances wen t s advisable not ony to ignore te e but to adopt ts opposte. For exampe tere are crcumstances wen it s advisabe to noduce eaborate and deend h ypoteses or ypoteses wc conadict weestablsed and generay accepted expermental resuts or ypoteses wose content is smaler tan te 14
OE
S
content of the esng and empiricall adeuate alteave, or self inconsistent hpotheses, and so on There are even circumstances and the cur rather freuentl when aum loses its foardookng aspect and becomes a hindrance to progess Nobod would caim that the teaching of smal hildr is exclusivel a matter of argument (though argument ma enter into it, and shoud enter into it to a arger extent than is customar}, and amost everone now agees that what ooks ike a resut of reason the master of a anguage, the estence of a richl arcuated perceptua world, ogca abiit is due part to indoctrinaon and part to a process of grwh that preeds with the force of natural law And where arguments do seem to have an eect, this is more often due to their physial reiin than to their ani n.
Having admtted this much, we must also concede the possibiit of nonargumentave gowth in the adul as wel as in (the theoreca parts o insiuins such as science, relgon, prostuon and so on 1 One of the few thnke to undetand ths feature of the deelopment of
knowedge was els Bohr . . he would neer o oulne any nshed pture but woud paenly go through a the phases of the deelopment of a problem, stang from some apparent paradox and gadualy eadng to ts eudaon In fa he neer regaded aheed esults n any othe t than stang n for fuer eploraon In speulang abou the pospets ofsome lne of nesgaon, he woud dsmss the usua onsderaon of smply elegane o een onssten th the remark that suh quales an only be poy udged a my tals] the eent. . . .' L. osenfed n Nie Bohr H L and or e h F and Coa S.osenta (ed.) ew Yok 17 p. 1 17 ow sene s neer a ompeed pess therefore s always befoe' the eent. ene smply eegane or onssten ae n neessa ondons of (sen) prae Consderaons suh these are usualy red by the hdsh remark that a onadon entas' eerythng. But onadons do not ental' anythng unless peope use them n ean ways And peope use them as entalng eerythng ony f they aep some rather smplemnded es of deraon. Sens posng theores th logal faults and obtanng nteresng resul th ther help (fo exampe the results of early fos of the aluus; of a geome where lnes onsst of ponts, planes of nes and oumes of panes; the pedons of the ode quantum theo and of eay fos of the quantum theo of radaon and so on) edenly preed aodng to derent rules. The rsm theefoe fals bak on ts authors uness t an be sho that a ogaly deontamnated ene has better resu Suh a demonsaon s mpossbe. Logally pefet ersons (f suh ersons est) usualy ae ony ong afer the mpefe ersons hae enrhed sene by ther onbuons For example, wae mechans was not a loga reonsuon' of peced ng theores; t was an attempt to presee ther aheemets and to sole the physal probems tha had arsen fom the use Both the aheements and the pobems were produed n a way e derent from the ways of those who want to sbec eethng o the yanny ofogc'.
6
AGANST METOD
We certainy cannot take it for granted that what is possbe for a smal chid to acquire new modes of behaviour on the sightest provaon, to sde into them without any noceabe eort s beyond the reach of hs elders One should rather epect that catasophic changes in the physical environment, wars, the breakdown of encompassng systems of moralty, pocal revolu ons, w ansform adult reacon pattes as we, ncludng impoant pattes of argumentaon Such a ansformaon may again be an enrely natural process and the only functon of a raona argument may lie n the fact that it increases the mental tenson that preceded an ause the behavioural outburst Now, f there are events, not necessarly arguents, whh use us to adopt new standards, nuding new and more comple forms of argumentaon, is it then not up to the defenders of the saus u to provde, not just counterarguments, but aso conary us? ('Vtue without terror is ineecve says Robespiere) And f the old forms of argumentaon tu out to be t weak a cause, must not these defenders either give up or resort to songer and more 'iraona means? (t s ve dicut, and perhaps enrey impossible, to combat the eects of branwashing by arment) Even the most purtanical raonast w then be forced to stop reasonng and to use pragan and n not because some of hs reasns have ceased to be valid, but because the psyhlal nns whch make them eecve and capabe of inuencing others, have disappeared And what is the use of an argument that eaves people unmoved? Of course the problem never arses qute in this form he teachng of standards and their defence never conssts merey in putng them before the mind of the student and makng them as ear as possibe he standards are supposed to have maal ausal a as we hs makes it very difult indeed to disnguish between the lalre and the maal of an arment Just as a wetrained pet wi obey hs master no matter how great the confuson n which he nds hmsef and no matter how urgent the need to adopt new pattes of behaviour, so in the very same way a wetraned raonalist wi obey the mental mage of hs master, he wil conform to the standards of argumentaon he has eaed, he l adhere to these standards no matter how great the confuson in whch he nds hmself, and he wi be qute incapable of reaizng that what he regards as the 'voce of reason s but a usal a of the aning he had recived. He wl be quite unable to dscover that the appea to reason to whih he succumbs so ready s nothing but a plal mane
ONE
17
Th inee, fce, popgnd nd binwhing echnique py much gee oe hn commonly believed in he gowh of ou knowedge nd in he gowh of cence, cn lo be een fom n nyi of he reaio bewee ia a aio. i ofen ken fo gned h cle nd dinc undending of new ide pecede, nd hould pecede, hei fomuon nd hei inu on epeion Fi we hve n ide, o poblem h we c, ie eihe pek, o build, o deoy Ye hi i ceiny no he wy in which ml childen develop. They ue wod hey combine hem hey ply wih hem unl hey gp mening h h o f been beyond hei ech. nd he ini plyful cviy i n eenl peequiie of he nl c of undending Thee i no eon why hi mechnim hould cee o funcon in he dul We mu epec fo emple h he ia oflibey could be mde ce only by men of he vey me con which wee uppoed o eae ibey. Ceon of hig, nd ceon pu fu undending of oe ia of he hing, are ve o pas ofoe a he same iisibe ps nd cnno be eped wihou binging he pe o op. The poce ief i no guided by weldened pogmme nd cnno be guided by uch pogmme, fo i conin he condion fo he elizon of ll poible pogmme i guided he by vgue uge, by pion (Kekegd). The pion give ie o pecc behviou which in u cee he ci cumnce nd he ide necey fo nlying nd epning he poce, fo mking i onl. The developmen of he Copeicn poin of view fom Glieo o he 20h cenuy i pefec emple of he iuon wn o decbe We wih ong belief h un coune o conempoy eon nd conempoy epeence The belief ped nd nd uppo in ohe beief which e eqully uneonbe if no moe o (lw of ine; he elecope). Reech now ge deeced in new diecon new nd of inumen e buil, 'evidence i eled o heoie in new wy unl hee ie n ideolo h i ch enough o povide independen gumen fo ny pcu p of i nd mobile enough o nd uch gumen wheneve hey eem o be equied. We cn y ody h Gileo w on he gh ck fo hi peien puui of wh once eemed o be illy comolo h by now ceed he meil needed o defend i gin ll hoe who wil ccep view only if i i od in cein wy nd who will u i ony if i conin cein mgicl e, clled 'obevonl epo. nd hi i no n ecepon � he noml ce heoe become ce nd 'eonble only aer ncoheen p of hem hve been ued fo long me. Such
18
AGAST METOD
uneaonale nonenical unmethoica foeplay thu tu out to e an unavoiae peconion of claity an of empiical ucce. Now when we attempt to ecie an to unetan evelop ment of thi kin in a genea way we ae of coue olige to appeal to the eng form of peech which o not take them into account an which mut e itorte miue eaten into new patte in oe to t unfoeeen ituaon (without a contant miue of language thee cannot e any icove any pogre) Moeove ince the aional categoie ae the gope of eveay thinking (incluing oina cienc thinkng) an of eveay pacce, [uch an attempt at unetaning] in eect peent ue an form of fale thinkng an acon fae, that i, fom the tanpoint of (cienc) common ene. Thi i how ialeil hikig aie a a form of thought that iolve into nothing the etaile etemnaon of the unetaning, 3 fomal logic inclue (Incientally, it houl e pointe out that my fequent ue of uch wo a pogre avance impovement etc., oe not mean that I claim to poe pecia knowlege aout what i goo an what i a in the cience an that want to impoe thi knowlege upon my eae veoe rea he es i his ow way an in accoance with the aion to which he eong Thu fo an empiicit, pogre will mean tanion to a theo that povie iect empiical tet fo mot of it aic aumpon Some people elieve the quantum theo to e a theo of thi kin Fo othe pogre' may mean unicon an hamony, pehap even at the expene of empiical aequa. Thi i how Eintein viewe the genea theo of eavity. A
his is ha aarhism helps o ahie pros i ay oe of he seses oe ar o hoose Even a lawanoe cience will
uccee ony if anachic move ae caionaly allowe to take place) It i clea, then that the iea of a xe metho o of a e theo of aonaity et on too naive a view of man an hi ial uouning To thoe who look at the ich mateia povie y hito, an who ae not intent on impoveihing it in oe to peae thei lowe innct, thei caving fo intellectual ecuity in the fom of claity peciion ojecvity tuth, it will ecome clea that there i only one pinciple that can e efene une al 2. erbe Maruse, eo ad oluo, London, 141, 130.
3. ege, ha Lo Vo. 1, ambug, 165 p 6.
ONE
19
circumstances and in a stages of human development It is the principe: anything goes. This abstract principe must now be examined and expained in concrete detai.
2 Fr aple we ay use hypheses ha nrai wele he anr wel-esablishe erial resuls We ay ane sie preeing unerinue
Examnin the prncipe in concrete detai means acin the consequences of 'counterrues which oppose famiar rues of the scienc enterse To see how this works, et us consider the rue that it is experence, or the 'facs, or expermenta resuts whch measure the success of our theories, that areement between a theo and the 'data favours the theo (or eaves the situaon unchaned) whie disareement endaners i and perhaps even forces us to eimnate it This rule is an important part of al theories of conrmaon and corroboraon. It is the essence of empircism. The 'counterrule correspondin to it advises us o introduce and eaborate hotheses which are inconsisten with weestablis theories anor weestabished facts It advises us to procee unernue.
The counternducve procedure ives rse o the followin quesons s counternducon more reasonable than inducon? Are there circumstances favourn its use? What are the aruments for it? What are the aruments aainst it? Is perhaps inducon awas preferable to counternducon? And so on. These quesons wi be answered in two steps. I shal rst examne the counterrule that ures us to deveop hotheses inconsistent with accepted and hih conrmed hees. Later on sha examne the counterrue that ures us to deveop hotheses inconsistent with weestabished. The resuts ma be summarzed as foows. n the rst case i emeres that the evidence that miht refute a theo can often be unearthed onl wih the hep of an incompabe aeave the advice (which oes back to Newton and which is s ve popuar toda) o use ateaves on when refuaons have aread discredied th orthodox theo pus the cart before the 20
WO
1
hoe lo ome ofhe mo impon fom popere of heo e found by con nd no by nlyi A cien who wihe o mximize he empicl conen of he view he hod nd who wn o undend hem cey he poibly cn mu heefoe inoduce ohe view; h i he mu dop pluralisi mehl. He mu cmpe ide wih ohe de he hn wih 'expeence nd he mu o impove he hn dicd he view h hve fied in he compeon Poceedng in hi wy he wil ein he heoie of mn nd como h e found in Gene o he Pimnde he wil elboe hem nd ue hem o meue he ucce of evoluon nd ohe 'mode view He my hen dicove h he heo of evoluon i no good i genely umed nd h mu be uppemened o enely epced by n impoved veion of Gene Knowedge o conceived i no eie of elf conien heoe h convege owd n idel view; i i no grdul ppoch o he uh i he n eve inceig ean f muual inmpaible ala ech inge heo ech fie ech myh h i p of he colecon focing he ohe ino gree culon nd of hem conbung vi hi poce of compeon o he developmen of ou concioune Nohing i eve eed no view cn eve be omied fom compehenive ccoun Pluch o Diogene Leu nd no Dc o von Neumnn e he mode fo peenng knowledge of h knd n which he his of cience become n inepbe p of he cienc ielf- een fo i fuhe elm wel fo ving n o he heoe conin ny pcu momen Expe nd lymen pofeonl nd dilen uhfek nd li - hey ll e nvied o pcipe in he cone nd o mke hei conibuon o he enchmen of ou cuue The k of he cieni howeve i no longe 'o ech fo he uh o o pie od o 'o yemize obeon o o impove pedcon The e bu ide effec of n cviy o which hi enon now minly deced nd which i make he weaker ae he rnger he ophi id and here uain he min fhe hle The econd 'couneule which fvou hypohee inconien wh beain fa and emal reul need no pecl defence fo hee i no ingle ineng heo h gree wih ll he known fc in i domin The queon i heefoe no whehe counenducve heoie hould be admied ino cence; he queon i he whehe he exising dicepncie beween heo nd fc houd be inceed o dimnihed o wh ele houd be done wih hem
AGAST METOD
To answer this queson it sufces to remember that obseaonal reports eperimenta resuts, 'factua statements, ither nan theoreca assumpons or se them by the manner in which they are used (For this point cf the discussion of natural interpretaons in Chapters 6) Thus our habit of saying 'the tabe is brown when we view it under norma circumstances, with our senses in good order, but 'the tabe seems to be brown when either the ighng condions are poor or when we fee unsure in our capacity of obseaon epresses the beief that there are famiiar cir cumstances when our senses are capabe of seeing the word 'as it reay is and other, equay famiiar circumstances, when they are deceived It epresses the beief that some of our senso impressions are veridica whe others are not We aso tae it for granted that the materia medium between the obect and us eerts no distorng inluence, and that the physica enty that estabishes the contact ight carries a ue picture A these are absact, and highy doubtfu, assumpons which shape our view of the world without being accessibe to a direct cricism Usuay, we are not even aware of thm and we recognize their eects ony when we encounter enrely dierent cosmoogy preudices are found by conast not by anaysis The material which the ss has at his disposa, his most subime theories and his most sophiscated techniques incuded, is suctured in eacy the same way It again contains principes whch are not nown and which if nown, woud be eemey hard to test (As a result, a theo may cash with the evdence not because it is not corect, but because the evidence is contaminated) Now how can we possiby eamine someg we are using a the e? How can we anayse the terms in whch we habitualy epress our most simpe and saightfoard obseaons, and revea eir presupposions? How can we discover the ind of word we presuppose when proceeding as we do? The answer is clear we cannot discover it from the ns. We need an al standard of cricism, we need a set of ateave assumpons or, as these assumpons w be quite genera, constung as it were, an enre ateave world, we nee a ream wrl n rr s heaur fhe real wrl we hnk we nhab (and which may actuay be just another dreamword) The rst step in our cricism of famiar concepts and procedures, the rst step in our cricism of 'facts, must therefore be an attempt to brea e circe We must invent a new conceptua system at suspends, or cashes wi, the most carefuly estabished obseaona resuts, confounds the most pausibe theorca principes, and intoduces
TWO
per cepons that cannot form pa of the exsng percepta word 1 hs step is agan conterindcve. Conterndcon s, therefore, aways reasonabe and t has aways a chance of sccess. n the foowng seven chapters, this concson wl be deveoped n greater detai and it w be elcidated with the hep of historical examples. One might therefore get the mpression that recommend new methodology which replaces ndcon by conterindcon and ses a mplici of theories, metaphysical vews, fai-taes nstead of the cstoma pair theo/obseaon his mpression wod ceany be mstaken My ntenon is not to replace one set of genera rles by another sch set my intenon is, rather, to convnce the reader that a mehl he ms ius n he heir limis he best way to show this s to demonsate the its and even the rraonali of some res whch she or he, s likely to regard as basic n the case of indcon (ncdng ndcon by falsicaon ths means demonsang how we the conterndcve procedre can be sppoed by argment. Aways remember that the demonstraons and the rhetorics sed do not express any 'deep convcons of mne. They merely show how easy it s to lead peope by the nose in a raona way. anarchist s ike an ndercover agent who pays the game of Reason in order to nderct the athori of Reason (rth Hones,Jsce, and so on. 3
Cahe' o upend' i meant to be moe geneal than onadit' I hall ay
hat a et ofidea o aon lahe with a oneptual yem ifit i eithe inonitent with it, o make the yem appear aburd For detail f. Chapter 6 below 2. hi i how Pofeo Ean MMullin intepeted ome ealie pape of ine See A aonomy ofthe elaon beeen ito and Philoophy ofSiene', ioa Sud Vol. 5 Minneapoli, 7 Dada' ay an ihte in D: A and Ani-A, not oly had no pogramme, i wa again all progamme.' Thi d not elude the kilful defene ofpogramme to how the himeial haae ofany defene, however raonal' (In e ae way an ato o a playwigh ould pue the oute manifetaon of deep love in ode to debunk the idea ofdeep love' ief Eample: Pirandelo.)
3 Te nss nn whh man ha n hypheses aee wh e heoies s unreasnable beause pr he lr he an n he beer he. Hyph nrang wel-e hees e us ne ha ann be bane n any her way. Prleran f he s balr se whle un mpa s al pwer Un als nge heee elm fhe nual
n his chpe shll pesen moe deiled gumens fo he counele h uges us o inoduce hypoheses which e nns wih wellesblished hees. The gumens wll be indiec They wil s wih ccism of he demnd h new hypoheses mus be consisen wih such heoes Ths demnd wi be cled he nss nn. 1 Pmafae he cse ofconsisency condion cn be de wh in few wods is well known (nd hs lso been shown in dei by Duhem) h Newons mechnics is inconssen wih Gleos lw offee fll nd wh Keples lws; h sscl hemodynmcs s nconsisen wh he second w of he phenomenologcl heo· h wve opcs is inconsisen wih geomeicl opcs; nd so on Noe h wh is being sseed hee s lgal inconsisency; i my wel be h he deences of pedicon e oo smll o be deeced by epeimen Noe so h wh is being sseed is no he nnss of sy, Newons he nd Gieos w bu he he inconsisency of sme nseues of Newons heo in he domin of vldy of Glileos w nd Glileos w n he s cse he siuon is especilly cle Gieos w sses h he cceeon of fee fl is consn whees pplcon of Newons heo o he sufce of he eh gves n cceleon h is no consn bu . Te cssecy cd ges bc t stle es. t lys mrt e ly ug e msel cty vlted ). s e r ged by my 20cetu scess d sers cece 2 Pee Duem The im ad Sue of Phyia eo e Yr, 2 80.
24
5
ra (athough imperceptiby) with the distance from the centre
o the earth. o speak more absactly consider a theory that successfuy describes the siuation inside domain D agrees with a ni number of obseaons (et their cass be F) and it agrees with these obseaons inside a margin M of error. Any alteave that contradcs ousde F and inside M is supported by eacty the same obseaons and s therefore acceptabe f was acceptable ( sha assume that F are the ony obseaons made). he consistency condion s much ess toerant t emnates a theory or a hpothesis not because it dsagrees with the facts it eminates it because it dsagrees with another theory, with a theory moreover whose conrmng instances t shares t thereby makes the as yet untested part of that theory a measure of vadty he ony dierence between such a measure and a more recent theory is age and famarty. Had the younger theory been there rst, then the consstency condon woud have worked in ts favour. he adequate theory has the right of priority over equay adequate aftercomers. 3 n ths respect the effet of the consstency condon s rather smar to the eect of the more tradiona methods of transcendenta deducon anayss o essences, phenomenoogica anayss inguisc anaysis t conibutes to the preseaon of the old and familar not because of any inherent advantage n it but because it is old and famlar hs s no the only nstance where on closer inspecon a rather surisng smiarity emerges between mode empiricism and some of the schoo philosophes t attacks. Now i seems to me that these brief consideraons, athough eading to an nteresng aia cricism of the consistency ondion and to some rst shreds of support or counterinducon, do no ye go to the heart of the matter. hey show that an alteave o the acepted point of view whih shares its conrming nstances canno be imina by facua reasoning. hey do not show that such an ateave is aab and even ess do they show that it hu b It is bad enough, a defender of the consistency condion might pint out that the accepted view does not possess fu empirica upprt. Adding new theories of an ua unaifa hara wi no improve the suaon nor s there much sense in rying to ra he accepted theories by some of ther possibe ateave. Such epacemen wi be no easy matter. A new formaism may have to be eaed and famiiar robems may have to be caculated in a new esdell A Proram Toward Redisoverin the Ratioal Mehanis o the e o eason Arhr he Ho of S Vol 4
GNS
wy Tebks mus be ewien univesiy cuicul edused, epemenl esuls einepeed. nd wh will be he esul f ll he e? nhe hey which fm n empicl sndpn hs n dvnge whseve ve nd bve he hey i eplces The nly el impvemen s he defende f he cnsisency cndin will cnnue deives fm he aiin fnewfas. Such new fcs will ehe supp he cuen heies hey will fce us mdi hem by indicng pecisely whee hey g wng n bh cses hey will pecipie el pgess nd n meely biy chnge. The ppe pedue mus heefe cnsis n he cnfnn f he cceped pin f view wih s mny elevn fcs s pssble The eclusin f leves s hen simply mesue fepediency hei invenn n nly des n help i even hndes pgess by bsbing me nd mnpwe h culd be deved bee hings The cnsisency cndn elimines such fuiess discussin nd fces he sciens cncene n he fcs which fe ll e he nly ccepble udges f hey This is hw he pcsng scens wil defend his cncenn n single hey he eclusin f empiiclly pssible leves is whwhle epeng he esnble ce f his gumen Theies shuld n be chnged unless hee e pessing esns f ding s The ny pessing esn f chnging hey is disgeemen wh fcs Dscussin f ncmpbe fcs wll heefe ed pgess Discussin f incmpble hypheses wil n Hence i is sund pcedue ncese he numbe f eevn fcs s n sund pcedue ncese he numbe f fculy deque bu incmpble leves One migh wsh dd h fm mpvemens such s incesed elegnce simplciy geney nd cheence shuld n be ecuded. Bu nce hese impvemens hve been ced u he clecn f fcs f he pupse f ess seems indeed be he ny hing lef he sciens nd s is - pvided fcs is an ae ailale in f whehe n ne ns ala he he be e. Ths ssumpn n whch he vldy f he fegng gumen depends in ms decsve mnne shl cll he ssumpn f he elve unmy f fcs he aunmy pniple. is n sseed by hs pinciple h he dscvey nd descipn f fcs s independen f a heizing. Bu i is sseed h he fcs which belng he empiicl cnen f sme hey e vilble whehe n ne cnsides leves h hey. m n we h hs vey mpn ssumpn hs eve been epliciy fmuled s sepe psule f he empiicl mehd. Hweve s clely mped in lms ll invesgns whch del wih quesns f
EE
27
conrmation and test. A these invesgaons use a mode in which a inge theo is compared with a cass of facts (or obseaon statements) which are assumed to be 'gven somehow submt that this is much too simpe a picture of the actua situaon. Facts and theories are much more inmatey connected than is admitted by the autonomy principe Not ony is the descripon of eve singe fact dependent on me theo (which may, of course, be ve dierent from the theo to be tested), but there aso est facts which cannot be unearthed except with the hep of ateaves to the theo to be tested and which become unavaiabe as soon as such ateaves are excuded This suggests that the methodoogca unit to which we must refer when discussing quesons of test and emprica content is constuted by a whe e fpa erapping fua uae bu muua innien her n the present chapter ony the barest outines wi be given of such a test mode However, before doing this want to discuss an exampe which shows ve ceary the funcon of ateaves in the discove of crica facts t is now known that the Brownian parce is a perpetua moon machine of the second nd and that its estence refutes the phenomenoogica second aw Brownan moon therefore beongs to the domain of reevant facts for the aw. Now coud ths reaon between Brownian moon and the aw have been discovered in a ire manner ie coud it have been discovered by an examnaon of the obseaona consequences of the phenomenoogca theo that did not make use of an ateave theo of heat? This queson is readiy divided into two () Coud the reane of the Brownian parce have been discovered in this manner? (2) Coud it have been demonsated that it actuay ru the second law? The answer to the rst queson is that we do not kow t is impossible to say what woud have happened if the nec theo had not been introduced into the debate It is my guess, however, that in that case the Brownan parcle would have been regarded as an oddity in much the same way as some of the ate Professor Ehrenhafts astounding eects were regarded as an oddity, and that it woud not have been gven the decisive posion it assumed in contempora theo The answer to the second queson is simply o Consider what the discove of an inconsistency between the phenomenon of Brownian moon and the second aw woud have r equired t woud have requied (a) measurement of the exact in of the parcle in order to ascertain the change in its nec eergy pus the energy spent on overcoming the resistance of the ud and (b) precise measurements of temperature and heat transfer the surrounding medium in order to estabish that any oss
8
GNS MOD
occung thee was indeed compensated by the inease in the eney of the moving pacle and the wo done against the uid Such measuements ae beyond expeimental possibiles;4 neithe the heat tansfe no the path of the pacle can be measued with the desied pecision ence a diect efutaon of the second law that consdes only the phenomenological theo and the facts of the Bownian moon is impossible It is impossible because of the stuctue of the wold in which we live and because of the laws that ae vald n this wold And as s well nown the actual efuaon was bought about n a ve dieent manne It was bought about via the nec theo and Einsteins ulizaon of it in his calculaon of the stascal popees of Bownan moon In the couse of ths pedue the phenomenoogcal theo (T was ncooated into the wide context of sascal physics (T in such a manne that he nss nn w vlae and it was ony h that cucial expeiments wee staged (nvesgaons of Svedbeg and Pein).5 4. For detals f. R. Fh Z Phyi Vo. 8 933 pp. 143. For these nesaons (whose phosophal bakround deries from Bomann) f . nsten igaion on he Theo ofhe Bnian Moion ed. R Fh New York 1 956 whh ontans al he releant pape by nsen and an ex hause bbloraphy by R. Fh. For the epemenal work of J Pen see Die Aome Lepz 920. For the relaon between the phenomenoloial theo and the kne theo of on Smouhowsk see Epementel nahwesbare er bhen Theodynamk widersprehende Moekuarphnomene Phyialiche Z Vo. 8 1912 p 069 as wel as the be noe by .R. Popper Ieersblty or nopy sne 190 Bh Joual r he Phlohy ofScice Vo 8 1957 p 151 whh summazes the essenal arumens Despte Enstens eh-makin dsoees and on Smouhowsks spendd presentaon o ther onseuenes Mae Smoluchoi Craow 1927 V 2 pp 226 316 462 an 30 the present suaon n theodynams s etremey unear espeally n ew of the onned presene ofsome e dobtfu deas of redon To be more spe the attemp s reqenly made o detene the entropy balane o a omple aiil press by refeene to the efuted phoological aw ater whh tuaons are nseed n an hoc ashon For ths f my note On the Possblty o a Perpetu Mobe othe Seond nd Mind aeradMehod Mnneals 1966 p 9 and my paper In Defene of Classa Physs Sudi i he io and Philohy of Scice I No 2 1970 It ouh o be menoned ndenaly that n 1903 when Ensten staed hs work n theodynams there ested emprial edene sesn that Brownan moon od no be a moleuar phenomenon See .M. Ener Noz zu Browns Moleklarbeweun Phy No 2 9 p 843. ner lamed that the moon was of orders of mantude beneath the ale to be epeted on the equpation pnpe. nsten igaion i he Theo ofhe Bian M pp. 63 esp p. 67 ae the follown theorea epanaon o the dsrepany sne an obseer operatin with dente means of obseaon n a dente manner an neer peree the atual path transersed n an arbarly small tme a ean mean elty wl
TEE
It seems to me that this exampe is typica of the reaon between fary genera theories or points of view and the facts Both the eevance and the refung character of decisive facts can be estabished ony with the hep of other theories which, though factuay adequate,6 are not in agreement with the view to be tested This being the case, the invenon and arcuation of alteaves may have to precede the producon of refung facts Empiricism, at east n some of its more sophiscated vesions demands that the empirical content of whatever nowledge we possess be increased as much as possibe. Hene he invenin falaes he vi a he nre fisin niu an essenial pa fhe pial meh.
Conversely the fact that the consistency condion eiminates ateaves now shows it to be in disagreement not only with scienc pracce but with empiricism as well By excuding valuabe tests it decreases the empirica content of the theories that are permitted to remain (and these, as have indicated above will usuay be the theories which were there rst); and it especialy decreases the number of those facts that coud show their imitaons This is how empiricists (such as Newton, or some proponents of what has been caed the othodox interetaon of quantum mechanics) who defend the consistency condion, being unaware of the complex nature of scienc nowledge (and, for that matter, of any form of nowedge) are voiding their favourite theories of empirical content and thus tuing them into what they most despise metaphysical doctrines7 ohn Stua Mill has given a fascinang account of the gradua transformaon of revouona ideas into obstacles to thought hen a new view is proposed it faces a hose audience and exceent reasons are needed to gain for it an even moderately fair hearig he reasons are produced, but they are often disregarded or aughed out of cou, and unhappiness is the fate of the bod inventors. But new generaons, being interested in new things become curious; they consider the reasons pursue them further and groups of esearches iniate detailed studies he studies may ead to surising successes (they aso raise ots of difcues). Now nothing succeeds ie always appea o im as a istantaeous velity. But it is lea at e velity seained us oesponds to no obeve popey of e moo unde nvestato. Cf. also May Jo Nye Molela eali Lodo 1972 pp. 98. Te ondito offaua adeuay wl be emoved in Capte 7 Te most damai onaio oe oodo ew wi made its empiial natue obvious ame by way o Bels eoem. But Be was on e side of Einsein ot o wom e eaded as an obsuanis. Cf. Jeemy Besei Quanum o neton 991 pp 3 o Bels baoud ad p 84 fo obsuanst)
0
AGA ST MTOD
sccess, even t s sccess srronded by dcles The theo becomes acceptable as a topc or dscsson t s presented at meengs and arge conerences The dehards o the status qo eel an obgaon to study one paper or another, to make a ew grmbng comments, and perhaps to oin n ts exporaon There comes then a moment when the theo s no onger an esoterc dscsson topc or advanced semnars and conerences, bt enters the pbic doman There are nodcto texts, poparzations examnaon qesons start deang wth probems to be soved n ts terms Scensts rom dstant eds and phosophers, tryng to show o, drop a hnt here and there, and ths oten qte nnormed desre to be on the rght sde s taken as a rther sgn o the mportance o the theo Unortnatey, ths ncrease n mportance s not accompaned by better nderstandng the ve opposte s the case Probemac aspects whch were ornaly ntrodced wth the help o carely conscted argments now become basc prncpes dobtl ponts t nto sogans debates wth opponents become standardzed and also qte nrealsc, or the opponents, havng to express themseves n terms whch presppose what they contest, seem to rase qibbes, or to misse words teaves are s empoyed bt they no onger contan reaisc conterproposas they ony see as a backgrond or the spendor o the new theo Ths we do have sccess bt t s the sccess o a manoevre carred ot in a vod, overcoming dices that were set p n advance or easy soon emprca theo sch as qantm mechanics or a psedo emprca pracce sch as mode scenc medcne wth ts materasc backgrond can o corse pont to nmeros acheve ments bt any vew and any pracce that has been arond or some me has achevements The qeston s whose achevements are better or more mportant and his qeson cannot be answered or there are no reasc ateaves to provide a pont o comparson A wonder nvenon has ted nto a oss There exst nmeros hstorca exampes o the process have st descrbed and varos athors have commented on t The most mportant recent athor s Proessor Thomas Khn n hs Sruure fSi Ruins 8 he dstngshes between scence and pre science and, wthin scence, between revoons and norma scence Prescence, accordng to hm, s prasc throghot and thereore n danger o concenang on opnions rather than on thngs (Bacon made a smiar pont The two components o matre 8 Chiao 962
1
science perfectly agree with the two stages menoned above except that Kuhn doubts that science or, for that matter, any acvity that claims to produce factual owledge can do without a nonal component. Fossis, he seems to say, are needed to gve substance to the debates that occur in the revoluona component - but he adds that the latter cannot advance without alteaves Two earlier authors are Mll and Niels Bohr Mill gves a clear and compelng descripon of the ansion from the early stag of a new view to ts orthodoxy Debates and reasonng, he writes, are features belonging to periods of ransion hen od noons and feengs have been unsetled and no ne dtines have ye succeeded to heir ascendan. A such mes peope of any menal acviy having given up thei old beliefs and not feeing uite sure hat hose hey sll reain can stand unmodied isten eagely to ne opinions Bu this stae of hings is necessarily ransio some parcuar body of dine in me raies the maoriy round i, organizes sial instuons and modes of acon confoably to isef educaon impresses his ne ceed upon the ne generaon withut th mtal pcs that h l t it and by degrees i acuires the ve sae poe of compression so ong exercised by he creeds of hich i had taken pace.
account of the ateaves replace, of the press of
replacement, of the arguments used in its course, of the sength of he ol vews an the weaesses of the new, not a 'systemac account but a hisl un feh sage fknwlege can aevate these rawbacks an increase the raonalty of ones theoreca comments Bohrs presenaon of new scoveres has precsey hs patte; t ontans prelma summaes sueyg the past, moves on to the present sate of owlege an ens up by makg general suggesons for the future 10 Mlls views an Bohs poceure ae not ony an expresson of ther libeal attue they also eect ther onvicon that a puralsm of ieas an fons of lfe s an essena pa of any aona inqu conceig the natue of thgs O, to speak more generaly:
Unanimi finin may beingr a gi hurh r hefghe r eey viims fsme ani r m myh r r he weak an 9 uoboraphy', uoed rom ia or ofJoh Sua Mi ed. M Leer ew York, 1 96, p 1 1 9 my emphasis. 1 or a more detaled accout c. my Phiohi Pap Vo. I Chaper 16, seco 6
3
GNS OD
williglw fsme ra Vae fii eessarbjee kwlege A a meh ha urages vae is als he meh ha is mpaible wih a humaiaa ulk (To the extent to whch
the contency condon delmit arety, it contain a theolocal element which lie, of coure in the worhip of fact o characteric of nearly all emprcm1 )
I I It s nteesn to see a e paudes tat direted te Protestans to te Bbe are oen mos dena wit te paudes wi diret emprss ad oter undamentass o hei ondaon, viz eperene s i is Num aum Baon demands ta a peoeved oons aporsm 6), opnos aporsms 42), even o aporsms ), be adured and renoued wit ad soem resotion, and te undesandn must be ompeey reed and eared o tem, so ta e aess o e kndom o man, w s ouded o te siees, may resembe tat o te kdom o eaven, were no admssion is oeded, eept to ildren aporsm 68) n bo ases dsputation w s te onsideraon o aeaves) is rzed, n bot ases we are ivted to dspese wt i, ad bot ases we are pomsed an mmediae pereptio, ere, o God, ad tere o Naure For te teorea bakroud o ts simiarty . my essay Cassa mpirsm, . Buts ed), The eholoil HeiaofNo Oord ad oroo, 970. For e sto oneos betwee Purtanism and mode see see Joes i ad os Caioia, 96, Captes -7 torou eamiao o e aos ta uened te rse o mode emprsm n nland s ond . eo, Sie Teholo ad Soe i Seh Cu Elad New York, 970 book veso o e 18 arte)
4 ere is n ia hwer anien an absur ha is n apable f impring ur knwlege e whle his fhugh is absrbe in siene an is use r impring e single he Nr is pliial ineerene ree. I may be nee erme he hainism fsiene ha resiss alaes he saus u
This nishes the discussion of pat one of counterinducon dealing with the nvenon and elaboraon of hpotheses inconsstent with a point of view that is highly conrmed and generaly accepted. The result was that a thorough examinaon of such a point of view may nvove ncompable alteatives so that the ewtonan) advice to postpone alteaves unl after the rst dculty has arisen means putng the cat before the horse. A scenst who s nter ested n maxima emprical content and who wants to undestand as many aspects of hs theory as possibe wi adopt a pual isc methodology he will compae theories with othe theories rather than with 'experience 'data or 'facts and he wil to improve rather than discard the views that appea to lose in the compeon For the ateaves whch he needs to keep the contest going may be taken fom the past as well As a matte of fact they may be taken from wherever one is abe to nd them from ancient myths and mode prejudices; fom the ucubaons of expets and fom the fantasies of canks. The whole hstory of a subject is ulized n the attempt to mpove its most ecent and most 'advanced stage The sepaaon between the hstory of a science its phlosophy and the science tself dssolves nto thn It s tereore, mpoant tat te ateaies be se aanst ea oter and no e soaed or emascuaed by some o o demyhooaion'. Unke Tih Bmann and heir oowers we shoud reard he word-iews o he Bbe, he G!amesh p he Iad he dda as uy eded alae olo whch a be sd t mod ad een o epace e scenti' osmooes o a e peod.
33
34
AGAINST MTHO
ar and so does te separaon etween sene and nonsene 2 Ts poson w s a natural onsequene o te arguments presented aove s requently attaked not y ounterarguments w would e easy to answer ut y retora quesons 'I any metapyss goes wrtes Dr Hesse n er reew o an earler essay o mne3 'ten te queson arses wy we do not go bk and explot An account and a uly humanitarian defence ofthis sion can be found inJS Mill's L Popper's philosopy, which some people would like to lay on us as the one and only humanitarian rationalism in existence tay, is but a pale relecon ofMill It is specialied, foalisc and elitist, and deoid of the conce for individual happiness that is such a chaacteristic feature of Mill e can undetand is peculiaries when we consider (a) the background oflogical positivism, which plays an impoant role in the Lo ofSt De (b) the unrelenng puritanism of its author (and of most of his followe), and wen we remember the inluence of Hariet Taylor on Mill's life and on his philosophy There is no Hariet Taylor in Popper's life The foregoing aguments should also have made it clear that I egad prolfeaon not ust as an exeal catalyst' of pogress, as akatos suggests in his essays (History of Science and Its Raonal Reconsucons', Bosto Stud, Vol 8, p 98 Poppe on emacaon and nducon, MS, 1970, p 1), but as an essenal pa ofit ve since xplanaon, Reducon, and mpiricism' ota Stud Vol 3, Minneapolis, 96) and especially in How to Be a Good mpiricist' DeareStud, Vol , 1963), I have agued that alteaves incease the empirical content ofthe iews that happen to stand in the cenre of aenon and are therefore, esa pas' of he falsiing pess (akatos, History', fn 7, describing his own posion) n Reply to Cricism' Bosto Stud, Vol , 196) I pointed out that the principle of prolifeaon not only recommends invenon of alteaves, it also prevents the eliminaon of ol heories which have been efuted The reason is that such theories conibute to the content oftheiictoriousrivals' (p 4) Thisagreeswith akatos' obseaonof97 1 that alteaves are not meely catalysts, which can late be removed in the aonal reconsucon' (History', fn 7), t hat Lakatos abutes he psychologisc iew to me and my iews to himself Considering the arment in the tex, it is clea that the increasingsepaaon ofthe history, the philosophy ofscience and ofscience itselfis a disadvantage and should be teninated in he interest of all these thee diiplines Otheise we shall get tons of minute, pecise but uely baen results 3 Mary Hesse, Rato, No 9, 967, p 93 cf BF Skinner, Bod Free ad D, New York, 1 97 1 p No me physicist would tu to Aristoe fo help' This is neithe e, nor would it be an advantage if it were e Aristotelian ideas inluenced esearch long afte they had allegedly been emoved by ealy mode asonomy and physics any history of 17th o 1 8thcentury science show that (example John Heilbonn's maellous Ele the th ad th Ctu Bekeley and os Angeles, 979) They esurfaced in biolo, in the theynamics of open systems and even in mathemacs Aristoe's theory oflomoon (which has the conseuence that a moing obect has no pecise length and that an obect haing a precise laon must be at est) was moe advanced than the Galilean iew and showed that ideas which in ou me emerged fom empirical eseah can be obtained by a caeful analysis of the problems of the connuum (details on this point in Chapte 8 of my Fare to Reo, ondon, 1987) Hee as elsewhee the propagandis of a naive sciensm give themselves the ai of pesenting agumen when ll they do is spead unexamined and illconceived mou
O R
5
the obecve cricsm of mode scence avalable in Astotelianism, or indeed in Vood? - and she insinuates that a ccism of this knd would be altogether laughable Her insinuaon, unfortunately, assumes a great deal of gnorance in her readers Progress was often achieved by a 'ccsm from the past, of precisely the knd that s now dismissed by her. Afte Astotle and Ptolemy, the dea that the earth moves that sange, ancient, and 'enely diculous, Pythagorean view was thrown on the rubbish heap of hsto, only to be evived by Copecus and to be forged by him into a weapon for the defeat of ts defeates The Hermec wngs played an impotant Qat in this evival, which is sll not suciently understood, 5 and they wee studed with cae by the great Newton himself 6 Such developments ae not surprising No idea s ever examned in all its amicaons and no view is eve given all the chances it desees Theoes are abandoned and superseded by more fashionable accounts long befoe they have had an oppounity to show the viues Besides, ancient docines and 'prmve myths appear sange and nonsensical only because the informaon hey contain is eithe not kown, o is distoted by philologsts or anthropologists unfamilia wth the simplest physical, medical or asonomcal knowledge 7 Voodoo, Dr Hesses pe rsae, is a 4 Pemy Synt uted aer the translan f Manius D Cudi Ptols Hanuh Astomie, V , epg 1 963 p 1 8 5 Fr a pse ealuan f the rle f the heec wrings during the Renaissance cf F Yates Giono Bno and the Heti Tition, ndn 963 and the lterature gien there r a cricsm f her sn cf the arcles by Ma Hesse and dward Rsen in V 5 fthe Minnota Studi the Philos ofS, ed Rger Stuwer Mnnesa 970 RS esan and McGuire Hetim and he St Rlution, s Angeles Clar Memrial ibra 1977 well as Ban Vices Jou ofM Hto, 5 1 1979 6 Cf M Keynes en the Man' in ssays and Setches n Biaphy ew Yr 1956 and in much greaer deai McGuire and Rattans en and the Pps f Pan ot and Re ofhe Ral Soe, Vl 1 1966 pp 108 re deaed accunts cf Fran Manuel e Relion ofIs ton, Oxfrd 97 4 RS esfa's mnumental baphy at Rt, Cambridge 1980 with teatre as we as Chaptes x and x f R Ppin e id Fo in Seth-Cu ouh eden and ew Yr 199 7 the scienc cntent f sme myhs cf C de Santlana e n of St houh, ew Yr 196 1 especally the Prle e can see then wites de Sanana hw s many myths fantc ad arbia n semblance f whch the ree ae the Argnauts s a late spring may prde a teinl f mage tfs a kind fcde which s beginning t be brken It w meant t alw thse wh new (a) detene uneually the psn f gien pane in respect t the t the ament and t ne anther ) t present what nwedge there w f e fabc fthe wrld in the f f tales abut hw the wrld gan' here are tw
r ,
easons why ths code w not dscovered earler. One s the convction of
36
AGAS MH
case in pint Nbdy nws it evebdy uses it as a paradigm f bacwardness and cnfusin And yet Vd has a rm thugh sll nt sufciently understd material basis and a study f its manifestans can be used t enrich and perhaps even t revise ur nwledge f physil.8 even mre interesng example is the revival f adinal medicine in Cmmunist China We start with a familiar develp ment 9 a great cunt with great tradins is subjected t Weste dminan and is explited in the custma way A new generan recgnizes r thin it recgnizes the material and ntellectual superirity f the West and aces it bac t science Science is imprted taught and pushes aside all adinal elements Scenc chauvism iumphs 'What is cmpable with science shuld live what is nt cmpable with science shud die 10 'Scence i this cntext means nt just a specic methd but al the resuts the methd has s far prduced Thngs incmpable with the resuts must be eiminated Od style dctrs fr exampe must either be storans ofscece hat scece did not start before Greece ad hat scec resuts ca oly be obtaied wth the scec method as t s pracsed today (and as t was foresadowed by Gree scienss) The oher reaso s the astroomcal, geoogcal, etc., gorace of most Assyrioogss, Aeptoogss, ld estament scolars, and so o: the apparet primvsm of may myts s just the reeco of the primve asonomcal, biological, etc., etc., owledge of ther colecto ad transato. Snce the dscoveries of Haws, Marshack Sedenberg, va der aerden (Gme and Aleba in An Cvilaions ew York, 183) and others we have to admt the exstece of an teaonal paaeoihic asoomy hat gave rse to schls, obseatories, scec adios and most nteresg theories. The heories, whch were expressed in iologica, ot n mathemacal, tes, have left their traces sagas, myts, egeds and may be ecoscted n a twofod way, by gongad to the preset from the materia remais of Stoe Age asoomy sch as maed stones, stone obseatories, etc., ad by gog bk into the past fom the litera emains wich we nd i sagas, egends, myts. An example of the t method s A Mahac, The R ofCvilaion New Yor, 1 7. An example of the second s de Sallaa-von ecend, Hamle Mi Boston, 16. 8 f. hapter of vStrauss, Sual Anholo ew Yo, 1 67 Fo the physiological bass ofVoo cf. .R. Rchter, he Pheomeo ofexplaied Sudde eat', n Gatt (ed.), The Physiolol B ofPhia as wel as .. anon, Bodi Chan in Pain Hun Fea and Rae New Yor, 11, and Vood eath', AmeanAnholos .s., xv, 1 4 he detailed boogca and meteoroogical obseaos made by socaled primves are repoed in vSauss, The SaeMind odon, 166 . R.. roer Tadiional Mediine in Mo China ambridge, Mass. 68 he autho gives a ve teresg ad far accout o deveopmens wth umerous uotaos from ewspape, boo, pamphles, but s oe ihibted by s respect for 0ceu scece 0 ou Shao, 33 as uoted roer op. ct. p. 0 f aso ..Y. wok, Siism in Chine Thoh ew Have, 1 6
OU
37
emoved fom medical pacce, o they must be eeducated Hebal medicine, acupunctue, moxibuson and the undelying philosophy ae a thing of the past, no longe to be taken seiousy his was the attude up to about 1954 when the condemnaon of bougeois elements in the Mnis of Health stated a campaign fo the evva of adional medicine No doubt the campaign was policaly inspied t contained at least two eements, (1) the idencaon ofWeste science with bougeois science and (2) the efusa of the paty to exempt science fom poical supesion and to gant expets special piveges But it povded the countefoce that was needed to ovecome the scienc chauvnism of the me and to make a pluality (actuay a duality) of vews possibe (his is an impotant point t often happens that pas of science become hadened and intoeant so that poifeaon must be enfoced fom the outside, and by polica means Of couse, success cannot be aanteed see the Lysenko aa But this does not emove the need fo non scienc conols on science) Now tis poicaly enfoced duaism has ed to most nteesng and puzzing discoveies both in China and in the West and to the ealizaon that thee ae eects and means of dagnoss which mode medicine cannot epeat and fo which it has no expanaon t eveaed sizeabe lacunae in Weste medcne No can one expect that the customay scienc appoach wi eventualy nd an answe n the case of hebal medicine the appoach consists of two steps 2 Fis the heba concoction s anaysed into ts chemical constuents hen the pei eects of each constituent ae detemined and the total eect on a pacula ogan explained on thei basis his neglects the possiblity that the heb, taen in its enety, changes the ate of the hle oganism and that it is this new state of the whoe oganism athe than a specc pat of the heba concocon, a 'magc blt as it wee, that cues the diseased ogan Hee as elsewhee owledg is obtained fom a mulplicity of vews athe than fom dtmined applicaon of a pefeed ideolo And we ealize at poifeaon may have to be enfoced by nonscenc agencies os powe is sucient to ovecome the most poweful scienc instions Exampes ae the Chuch the State, a polical paty bi discontent o money the best sngle enty to get a mode cinst away fom what hs 'scienc conscience tels him to pusue i l e r (o, moe ecently, the Swiss fanc) . h ss bw ed ad e cf F Schmann, Iolo and ano ous hna Bekley, 1966 f MB Keg, Gre Medne Nw Yrk 964
38
AGANS MTHOD
Pluralism of teores and metapysical views is not only important for metodolo, it is also an essenal part ofa umanitaran outlook Progressive educators ave always tred to develop te individuality of teir pupils and to brng to fruion te parcular, and somemes uite uniue, talents and beiefs of a cild Suc an educaon, owever, as very often seemed to be a futie eercise in day dreamng For is it not necessary to prepare te young for life i aual i? Does tis not mean tat tey must lea ne pailare f view to te exclusion of everyting else? And, if a trace of teir maginaon is sll to remain, wil it not nd its proper applicaon in te arts or in a tin domain of dreams tat as but litle to do wit te word we live in? Wil tis procedure not nally lead to a spit between a ated reality and welcome fantasies, science and te arts carefu descrpon and unresained selfepression? Te argument for proliferaon sows tat tis need not appen It is possibe to reain wat one mgt call te freedom of arsc creaon an ue i he ful not just as a road of escape but as a necessary means for discoverng and peraps even canging te features of te world we live in Ts coincidence of te part (ndividua man) wit te woe (te world we live n) of te purely subecve and arbiary wt te obecve and awfu, s one of te most important arguments in favour of a puralisc metodoogy For dels te reader is advised to consult Mills magnicent essay On Liber
13. C m accon o a n Vol Chap 8 an Vol. Chap 4 o my Philoshial Pap. C. ao Appn I o p a.
5 N he ae wih a he facs in is main ye i is n always he he ha is blame Fas are nsiue lr ilges an a ash beweenfas an hees may beprffpess I is als a s in ur aemp n hepniples implii inmiliar bsainal nins.
Considering now the invenon elaboaon and the use of theories which ae inconsisten not just with othe theories but even with erimens fas bseains we may stat by poinng out that n single he ae wih al he knwn fas in is main And the rouble is not ceated by umous, or by the esult of sloppy procedure It is ceated by experiments and measuements of the highest precison and reiability It will be convenient at this place, to distinguish two dierent inds of disagreement between theo and fac numerical disagree ment, and qualiave failures he rst case is quite familiar a theo makes a cetain numerical predicon and the value tha is acually obaned dies fom the predicon made by more than the margn of error Precision nsruments are usualy involved here Numerical disageements abound n science hey gve rise o an 'ocean of anomalies that surrounds eve single theo hus the Copeican view at the me of Galileo was inconsistent with facts so plain and obvious tha Galileo had o call i surey false 2 hee is no limit o my astonishmen he wries in a o he ocea' a aou way o eag wh , c. my Reply o Crcm' oo d Vol. 65 pp 4 Galleo Galle The ay uoe S Dae a C.D. OMaley e), The y he Come of Loo, 60 p. 85 he urel ale' reer o he coeao by Chuch auhore. Bu a wl be explae he core o he book epecaly Chape 1 3 he coemao wa bae pa o he phloophca bury' o he ea o a mog earh, .e o emprca alre a heoecal euacy See alo he ex uoao a oe. A o he yem o Polemy', e Galeo o h po (184) ehe cho, o ohe aoomer, or eve
39
40
AGANST MTHO
later work,3 'when I reect that Aistarchus and Copeicus were able to make reason so conquer sense that in deance of the latter the former became mstress of ther belief. Newtons theory of gravitaon was beset from the very begnnng by dcules serous enough to provide materal for refutation.4 Even qute recently and n the non-relavisc domain it could be said that there est numerous dscrepances between obseaon and theory 5 Bohrs atomc model was inoduced and retaned n the face of precse and unshakeable conary evidence. 6 The specal theory of relavity was retaned despite Kaufmanns unambiguous results of 1906 and despite DC lers expeent 7 The general theory of relavity Copecs coud cearly refute it, inasmuch as a most impoant arment taen from the moement of Ma nd Venus alwys st n their wy The most imant arment nd Galieos resoluon are dscussed in Chpte 9 nd 10 3 Galileo Galilei, ue Conin the T Chi Wo Syst Bereley, 1 93, p 38. 4 Accordin to Neon the mtual cons ofcomets nd plne un one nother ie rse to some inconsiderbe ielaries . . whch wll be pt to increase, l the system wn reformaon, Oti New Yor, 1 9, p 40 ht Neon means tht aiton distubs the plne in wy tht s ely to blow the plnet system p Bbylonin dt as used by Ptolemy show tht the plnet system has remined stble for lon me. Neon concluded that it w bein periodically refoed by dine inteenons: G c s stbilin force in the plneta system (nd in the world whoe, whch s constnty losin moon throuh presses sch s inelsc collisons) One of the elries considered by Neon, the ret nequali of Jupiter nd Stu (np ns! Motte, ed Cor, Bereley, 1934, p 397) ws shoby Lplce to be peric dsturbnce with lre riod. Then Poincr fond tht the series deelopments custom in the clclaons oen diered er they hd sho some conerence while Bhns dscoered tht no qunte methods oer thn series expnsons cold resole the body problem. This was e end ofthe prely qunte peri n celesal mechncs (detils n J Moser, ofMathati Studi Vol. 77, 1 973, Princeton). See also M. Rybo An Elta Su ofCetl Mehani New Yor, 1 961, for suey nd qnte resuts ofrios methods of ccuon The qualte pproch s briey described on pp 6f hs itt more thn two hndred ye before one of the mny dcles of this rther sccessl theo w nally resoled BrowerClemence, Method ofCeltal Mehani New Yor, 1 96 Also RH ice, Remrs on the Obseonal Bss of Generl Rel, n HY hi nd F. omn (eds), Giation andReti New Yor, 1 964, pp. 1- 6 For more detied discssion of some of the dces of cssicl celesal mechncs, cf. J hy, La e etitet Mhanique lte Vol. 1, Chpte 4 nd , Pris, 198. 6 Cf. Max Jmmer, e Contual elmt ofQntum Mehani New Yor 1 966, secon . For n anlysis cf. secon 3c/ of Latos, Falscon nd the Methodolo of Scenc Research Prorammes, in LatosMsre (eds), Ctiism and the Gwth ofKnowlede Cmbride, 1970 7 Kufmann, ber de Konston des leons, s No 19, 16, p 487. Kaufmnn stted his concsion qute nmbosy, nd in tlcs e
VE
41
hough sursngly suessful n a seres of oasonally rather rama ests 8 ha a rough tme n areas of elesal mehans erent from the avane of the erhelon of Meru 9 In the es the aguments an observaons of Dke an othes seeme to enange even ths eon The oblem s sll unesolve 1 0 ult ofthe euts ae not patble th thefuntal supton ofLo and Ensten.' Loen eacon i eem ve ikely ha we hall have o einh hi ea alogeher (Th ofEletn, econ eion, p. 3) Ehrenfe
Kafmann emonae ha Loren efoale elecon le o y he mearemen Zr Saiifrage e en Bcheer-Langevin lekonen, s Z Vol 7, 16, p 30) Poncar recance o accep he new mechanic of Lore ca e explaie a ea in pa, y he ocome of Kafmann exrimen C Sce and Meth, New Yok 1960, Bk III, Chape , ecion v, where Kafman exrime i e, he conclio eig ha he pricple of eavy cano have he fnamenal imance oe wa incline o acrie o Cf. alo S Golerg, Pocar Siece an nei Relaivy, Bth Joul the Hsto ofSe, Vol , 1970, pp. 73, an he lieraure give here. ine alone regare he rel a improale ecae heir aic ampo, from which he ma of he movng elecron i ece, are no ggee y heoreical yem whch ecompa wer compexe of pheomena ah Rktt und lekttt, Vo. 4, 1 907, p. 349) Miller work wa ue y Loren for many yea, bu he co no n he role wa only n 1 9, wenyveyeaaer Miler ha ihe hi exme, a a afaco accou of Miller rel wa fon Cf. RS. Shankla, Conveao wh Eien, A. Jou s, Vol 31, 1963, pp 7-7, ecially p. , a well a foooe 19 a 34; cf alo he inconclve icuio a he Coference o he McheoMorley Exrime, Astsl Joual, Vo. 68, 1 98, pp 341 Kafman expeme wa aaye y Max Planck a fo o e o ecive a a oppe hren fe Poincar an Loren no op Planck Why? My con ecre ha Plack elef n a obecve reay an h ampo ha i eo wa aou ch a realy mae him a lile more crical Deail in Caper ofEe Zahar Ensten s Roluton, La Sale, Ill, 1 989 8 Suc a e of e ec ofgavy po g ha wa care o in 1919 y Eon an Crommei a evaluae by Eo For a colouf ecripon of e ve a impac, cf CM Wl Wa Ensen Rht? New York, 98, pp 7 9 Cay op c p 30 0. Rpeang coierao y Newcom ree for eample, i Cay op pp 04), Dicke po ou ha a obaee of he u woul a clacal m o Mercu moo an euce he ece compare wh Neo eo) avace o peheio Meareme by Dick an Goenberg he foun a enc of km eween e eaoal a polar ameer o he an a copoig eco o hre econ of arc for Merc - a ieable evao om h relavc vale. h le o a coerabl conrovery coceig he accuray o e Dck-Goeberg expeme an o an increae i he mber o Enenia heoe o gaviao echnical eal i CM Will, Th and et n Gtatonal s Cambge, 198, pp. 176 a plar ey cg laer evelopme W Enten Rht? Chaper . Noe how a new heo E heo of gravaon) whic i heorecaly paile a well cone ca be eagere y explog i refe reeceor an carg o appropriae epme Cf. alo RH Dcke op c
4
AGAINS MHOD
On the other hand there exist numerous new tests oth inside the planeta system and outside of it that provide conrmaons of a precision unheard of only twenty years ago and unimagined y Einstein In most of these cases we are dealing with uantave prolems whch can e resolved y discovering a etter set of numb ut which do not force us to make ualitave adjusents I I . e oue the panea em comolog bac hoe pua) ae neee to eamne ateave that agee wth nteinan eavt ne the oa tem hee now e a conieabe numbe of uch ateatve an pecia tep ave been taen to cai them an o eucate ther mlae an ieence Cf he ntoucon o CM W op ct I The uaon ju ecbe how how i wou be o approach cence fom a naive-faicaon perpecve Yet th precie wha ome phioophe have been ting to o Thu Hebert eig Minnota Studi Vo I 971 p. 7) an Ka Poppe (eive Knowlede p 78) have ie o intein no a nave facaon eig we If ntein ele on "beau "haon mme "eegance n concng hi general heo of reavt i mu nevehee be remembere tha he ao a in a ecre in Prague n I 90 - I wa peent then a a ve oung ent) "If the obeaon of the re hift n the peca of mave ta on' come ou quantatvey n accorance wth the pncpe of geneal reavt hen m theo will be u an ahe.' Popper wte nten . . a that f the e f eec . wa no obee in the cae of whte warf i theo of genea reavit woul refute' Poppe give no ouce for hi o an e mot iel ha i fom eigl Bu egl' o an Poppe' repeon conic wth the numerou caon whee inten emphae the eaon of the mae' e Veun e Sace') over an ave vecaon oflittle eect' an thi no on in caua rema uring a lece but n wng. Cf the qotaon n fote 7 above which ea wth ce of the peca theo of elavt an pecee the a a whch eigl wa preen Cf alo the lee to M Beo an K. Seeg a qoe in G Hoon Inence on nein' arl Wor' an No 3, 1966 p 4 an K Seeg Albe Eintn Zrich 1 9 p 71 In 1 9 Bo woe to nen (BoEinten Lett New Yo 1971 p 1 ealng with enlch' ana ofthe benng oflg near the n an the re h) I real l a f ou oula i not qie coect t even woe n the cae of the e i [the crcial cae efee o b egl an Popper th i much male than the theorecal vaue towar the cene of the n' i an mch age a the ege Cou th be a hn o nonlneat?' intein eer of 1 Ma 1 9 op. ci p. 19) reple renc . oe no move me n the lighet ven if the eecon ofig the perieia movemen or lne hift were nnown the gravtaon eqaon wo be convncng becae the avo the inera tem the phantom whic aec evehing bt no ielf aecte). It eal stane that
human bn ae noal afto the stnt amts while th ae alw�s inlined to imae meun a m iac). How th conct between egl' etmon an inen' wng) o be eplane? It cannot be eplane b a hane n
nein' aue H repectfu atie owar obeaon an epemen wa thee fom the ve beginnng a we have een It mght be eplane ethe b a mae on egl' part or ele a another ntance of nein' oppounim' c et o foonoe 6 of he Intduion On he la page p. 9) of h b die Spielle und allene Relatvitheoe,
IV
43
The second case, the case of qualtave falures, is less familar, but of much greater interest. In this case a theory s inconsstent not with a recondite fact, that can be unearthed with the help of complex equipment and s kown to experts only, but with crcumstances which are easily noced and which are familar to everyone. The rst and, to my mind, the most portant example of an nconsistency of ths kind s Parmenides' theory of the unchanging and homogeneous One. This theory llusates a desire that has propelled the Weste scences from their incepon up to the present me - the desre to nd a unity behnd the many events that surround us Today the unity sought s a he rch enough to produe all the acepted fats and laws; at the me of Parmendes the unity sought was a subsane Thales had proposed water, 1 3 Heralitus re Aamander a substance whh he alled the apern and whih could produe all four elements without being idenal with a single one of them Parmenides gave what seems to be an obvous and rather va answer: the substane that underlies everhing that is is Beng But this va answer had surprsing onsequenes For example, we an assert that (rst prinpe) Beng s and that (seond prniple) Beng s n Now onsider hange and assume it to be fundamenta Then hange an ony go from Beng to Not Beng But aordng to the seond prinipe Not Being s not, hh means that there is no ndamenta hange. Next onsider dierene and assume it to be fundamenta. Then the dierene an only be between Being and Not Being. But (second prinipe) Not Beng is not and therefore there est no dierenes in Being it a singe unhanging, onuous lk. Parmenides kne of ourse that people, hmsef inuded pereive and aept hange and dierene ut as his argument had shown that the pereived presses oud not be fundamental he had to regard them as merely apparent or decepve This is indeed what he said thus anipag those siensts who onasted the rea ord of siene ith the everyday world of quaies and emoons deared the atter to be mere appearane and ed to base their arguments on objeve experments and mathemas excusivey He aso anipated a Brw, 9, nen we I the re h o he cal lne cae the gravaonal poenal no e then the general theo o relav wo e eable.' Doe th olc wth nen' cavaler ae owa obeaon ee aove oe no. The paage pea o the ed sh no o oatio oft. 3. The ollowng accon h peclave Dea n Vol an oWKC. Guhe , A Hto of Geek Phloshy, Cambge 196 an 196, a wel n haper an 3 o m Fae to Reon
44
AGANST METHOD
popular interetation of the theo ofrelavit whih sees all events and transions as aread prearanged in a fourdimensiona onnuum, the on hange bein the (deepve) joue of onsiousness along its word ine Be that as it ma, he was the rst to propose a onseaon law (Being is to draw a bounda ine between realit and appearane (and thus to reate what later thiners aed a theo of nowedge) and to give a more sasfato foundaon for onnuit than did th- and 2th entu mathemaians who had to invoe intuion Using Paenides arguments Aristotle onsuted a theo of spae and moon that anipated some ve deep-ing propees of quantum mehanis and evaded the diues of the more ustoma (and less sophsated) interetaon of a onnuum as onsisng of indivisible eements 5 Parmenides theo lashes with most mode methodologia pinipes but this is no reason to disregard it A moe spei exampe of a theo with qualitave defets is Newtons theo of olous Aording to this theo, ight onsists of ras of dieent refrangibiit whh an be sepaated, eunited, refrated, but whih ae never hanged in thei inteal onstuon, and whih have a ve sma atera extension in spae Considering that the sufae ofmiros is muh ougher than the lateal extension of the ras the ra theo is found to be nonsistent with the estene of miror images a is admitted b Newton hmsel: if ight onsists of ras, then a miro shoud behave lie a rough sufae, ie it should loo to us lie a wal Newton etained his theo, eliminang the diult with the help of an hoc hpothesis: the reeon of a a is eeted not b a single point of the eeng bod but b some powe ofthe bod whih is evenl diffused al ove its surfae 6
I 4 A escpn f he Parmenen lur f he he f rey s en by H Weyl hilohy ofMathati and atual Sie, Pncen I 949 p. 16. Ensen hmself wre: Fr us wh are cnnce physcss h sncn beween pas presen an fue has n her meann han ha f an lusn huh a enacs ne. Coponne e Mihele Bo, Ps I 979 p 3 I 2. Cf lsp. 292. In a w he eens f a human lfe re llsns huh enacs nes I 5. Fr Arse cf he essy qe n Chpe 4 e 3 Me aemp t et cnny u fcllecns nsble eemens ae ee n A Genbaum A Cnssen Cncepn he Exene Lnea Cnnuum as an Areate f Unexene Elemens hil ofSie N. I 9 I 952 pp 283 Cf ls W Slmn (e) Zo a, New Yk I 970 1 6. Sr Iaac Nen Oti, Bk 2 pa 3 psn 8 New Yk 1952 p 266. F a cssn f hs spect f Nens meh c my esay Classcal Empcsm hiloshil , V. 2 Chape 2
IV
45
In ewtons case the ualtave scepancy between theoy an fact was emove by an hoc ypothesis. In othe cases not even ths vey msy manoeuve s use one etans the theoy an tes toet s socomngs An example s the aue towas Keples ule accong to wc an objec vewe thoug a lens s peceve at the poin at wc the ays tavelling fom the lens towas the eye ntesect 7
obj
-
_
"
Te ule impies that an object suate at the focus wll be seen nntely fa away. But on the conay,' wtes Baow, ewton's teace an peecesso at Cambge, commenng on this pecon, 8 we ae assue by expeence that [a pont suate cose to the focus] appeas vaously stant, accong to the ieent stuaons of the eye . . An t oes almost neve seem fute o than t woul be f t wee beel wth e nake eye; but, on e conay, t oes somemes appea muc neae . All wc oes seem epugnant to ou pncples' But fo me, Baow connues, nee ths no any othe cuty sall ave so geat an inuence on me, as to make me enounce a wc know o be manfestly ageeable o eason. e ect ty e ect 7. Jhaes Keple d Vieion Paaipoma Johann Kl, Gammele eke, V. 2, Mich, 939, p 72 Fr a etaie iscssi f Keple's rle a is iece see Vasc Rchi, Oi he Se ofVion, New Yr, 1957 hapte f. as hapte 9 belw 8 eion Canab in Sholio publi habi in quibu Oiom Phoon uin Raion iianu onu, 1669 p. 25. he paae i e by Bereley i his attac he raita, bjectiistic' pc n ay oa a heo ofViio Wr, V. e. raer, , 90 pp 7
XV/
4
AAINST THOD
Baow ions the qualitave dicules, addng that he will not abandon the theo This is not the usual pocedue The usual pocedue is to foget the difcules neve o talk abou them, and to poceed as if the theo wee without faul This atude is ve common oday Thus the classical elecodynamics of Maxwell and Loentz implies that the moon of a fee pacle is selfacceleaed Consideing the selfenegy of the elecon one obains divegent expessions fo poinchages whie chages of nie extension can be made o agee with elavity onl by adding untestable sesses and pessues inside the elecon 1 The poblem eappeas in the quantum theo though i is hee paaly coveed up by enomalizaon This pocedue consists in cossing ou the esults of cetain caculaons and eplacing them by a descipon of what is acually obseed Thus one admis implicitly tha the theo is in ouble while fomulang i in a manne suggesng tha a new pinciple has been discoveed 20 Smal wonde when philosophic ally unsophiscaed authos ge the impession tha al evidence points with meciess deniteness in the diecon [tha] all the pocesses involving unknown ineacons confom o the fundamenta quanum aw 2 1 A siking example of qualiave failue is the satus of classical mechanics and elecodynamics ae Boltzmanns equipaon theoem Accoding o this theoem ene is equally disibuted ove all degees of feedom of a mechanical o elecodynamic) sysem Both aoms which had o be elasc o ebound fom the was of a conaine and fom each othe) and he eecomagnec eld had inniely many degees of feedom which mean tha solids and the
9 W. Heitler The Quau Theo oRadiaio Oor, 195 p 3 20 Reomaiatio has i the meatime ecome the asis o quatm el theoy a has e to preictios o surpisig accuracy (epo with iteratre A Pais, ard Boud Oo, 96. This shows ha a poit o iew which, looe at rom aar, appears o hopeessly wrog may cotai ecelet igrees a that ts eceece may remai ueeae to those gue y strict methooocal rles Aways ememer hat my eampes o ot citice sciece they cicie those who wat to suect it to thei simplemie ues y showig the isasters such ules woul create. ach o the eampes o oototes 17 ca e use as a ass or case stuies o the i to e carie ou i haps 62 (aileo a he opeca Reoluo) This shows ha h cas oaleo is o a ecepo characeiig the egig o the socae sce eouo' ( Ray, Theorepurasmus Theoremoismus', Deme eseheim (e.), D Meho- ud Theo plualiu i Wcha 197 1 p 16 s pical o sciec chage a all times. 2 1 . Roseel i baio ad ereaio Loo, 1957 p
IE
47
elecomagnec elds should have acted as insaable sinks ofenegy. Yet [a]s so often in the hsto of science, the conict between simple and geneally known facts and cuent theoecal ideas was recoed only slowly. Another example of mode physics is quite instucve fo it ght have led to an enely dieent development of ou knowledge conceing the micocosm. Ehenfest poved a theoem accoding to which the classical elecon theo of Loentz taken in conjuncon with the equipaon theorem excludes induced magnesm. 3 The easoning is exceedingly simple; according to the equiparon theoem the pobability of a given moon is popoonal to exp /R where is the enegy of the moon. Now the ate ofwok of an elecon moving in a constant magnec eld B is, accoding to Loentz W=Q + VB) V where Q is the charge of the moving pacle, V its velocity and the elecc eld. This magnitude educes to QV which means that the ene and theefoe the pobability emains unaected by a magnec eld. Given the pope context this esult songly supports the ideas and expeimental ndings of the late Felix Ehenhaft.) Occasionally it is impossible to suey all the inteesng consequences, and thus to discove the absud esults of a theo. This may be due to a deciency in the esng mathemaca methods; it may also be due to the ignoance of those who defend the theo. Unde such cicumstances the most common pocedue is to use an olde theo up to a cetain point whch is oen qute abia) and to add the new theo fo calculang enements. Seen fom a methodological point ofvew the pocedue is a vetable nighae. Let us explain it using the elavsc cacuaon of the path of Mecu as an example. The perihelion of Mecu moves aong at a ate of about pe centu Of ths vaue 02" ae geomec having to do th the movement of the efeence system whie 3" ae dynamica due to pertubaons in the soa system. Of these petubaons but the 22 K otried Weisskopf Con ofPaie Psi, o I , ord and ew Yrk 1984, p 6. 23. The dicuty was realized by Bohr in his dtoral thesis cf ies r Coeed Wo, . I Amsterdam 1 92, pp 1 58, 38 1 . e inted ut that the eity changes due t the changes in the exteal eld wuld eualize aer the eld was estabished s that n magnec eects culd arise f als eibron and S Kuhn he enesis fthe Bhr Atm' Htoil Studi in te Physil S, I 969, p. 221. The arment i n the text is taken rm Te Fnman Leu, l 2, aioa and Lndn 1 965, hapter 346. r a smewhat cearer accunt cf R Bece eoie Elektitt, Leipzig 1949, p 132
48
AAST MOD
famus 43" ae accunted f b classcal mechancs Ths is hw the situatn s usuall eplained The eplanan shws that the pemse fm whch we deive the 43" s nt the geneal the f elavit plus sutabe nial cndns The pemse cntans classcal phscs n on t whateve reavisc assumpns are beng made Futheme, the elavisc calcuan, the scaled Schwaschld slun', des nt deal with the planeta sstem as t ests in the rea wld (e u wn asmmetic gaax); it deals with the enre cna case f a cental smmeca univese cntanng a singulait n the midde and nthng ese What are the reasns fr empling such an dd cnjuncn f premises? The reasn, accrding t the custma repl, is that we are dealing with apprmans The fmuae f casscal phscs d nt appear because relavit is ncmplete Nr is the centra smmetic case used because relavit des nt er anthing better Bth schemata w frm the general the under the specal crcumstances reaized n ur planeta sstem prd we mit magntudes t small t be cnsdered Hence, we are usng the the f relavit thrughut, and we are usng it in an adequate manner Nw n the present case, makng the requred apprmans wuld mean calculang the full bd prblem reavscal (ncludng lngtem resnances between derent planeta rbts), mitng magntudes smaler than the precsin f bsean reached, and shwng that the the thus cutaled cincdes with classical celesal mechancs as cected b Schwazschld Ths prcedure has nt been sed b anne simpl because the relatvisc bd prble has as et wthstd sln When the argument stated, there were nt even apprmate sluns fr mptant prblems such as, f eample, the prblem f stabilt (ne f the rst geat stumbling blcks fr Newtn's the) The classcal pat f the eplanans, therefre, dd nt ccur just fr cnvenence, w bsou n nd the apprans ade were nt a result f relavsc calculans, the were ntrduced n rder t make relavt t the case One ma prperl cal them ho pproxons.4 24 day the s-caled parametred psewtia alism saises mst f the desiderata utlined in the et (details i M Wl Theo My int is tha ths was a later achieemet whse absence did n preet sceiss rm argig ad ai well abut the ew ideas heres are t nly used premises fr deratins they are e mre freqently used as a general bacgrd r el
IV
4
A ho appoxmaos abod mode mahemacal physcs
They play a ve mpotat pat he qatm heo of elds ad they ae a esseal gedet of the coespodece pcple At he momet we ae ot coceed wh the easos fo hs fact, we ae oly coceed wh ts coseqeces: ho appomaos cocea ad eve elmate qatave dcles They ceate a fase mpesso of the excelece of o scece t follows that a phlosophe who wats to stdy the adeqacy of scece as a pcte of he wod o who wats to bld p a ealsc scec mehodology mst look at mode scece wth speca cae. most cases mode scece s moe opaqe ad moe decepve, tha ts 6th ad 7thcet acestos have eve bee As a al exampe of qaltave dcles meo agan the helocetc theo at the me of Galeo shal soo have occaso to show that ths theo was nadeqate both qaltavely ad qatavey, ad that t was aso phosophcay absd To sm p ths bef ad ve ncompete lst: wheeve we k, wheeve we have a ttle paece ad seect o evdece a pedced mae we d that theoes fal adeqately to epodce ceta qun rus ad that they ae qu nop to a spsg degee. Scece gves s theoes of geat beaty ad sophscao Mode scece has developed mahe macal sctes whch exceed aythg that has ested so fa n coheece geeaty ad empcal sccess Bt n ode to acheve ths macle al the esg tobes had to be pshed nto the ron bewee theo ad fact 25 ad had to be cocealed by ho hypotheses ho appomaos ad othe pocedes guesses whse fa rean t he asic assumpns s dct t aean I mst cness' writes Descaes n his Disoue on Method (ira f era A, 1965 52), ha he wer f natre is s ampe and s and hese prncipes [he hereica rincipes he had deeped r his mechanica unee s simpe and s genera hat I ams neer nce any parcuar eect such ha I d n see righ away ha i can e made t cnf hese principes n many dieren ways; and my greaes dicty is usuay t dscer in which f hese ways he eect is deried' Mde hereca physiciss nd hemsees in eacy he same sitan 25 Vn Neumann's wr in uantm mechanics is an especay nsce eampe f his predre In rder t arrie at a sasfact prf f he expansn herem in ie Space n Neumann repaced he asi-nte nns fDirac (ad Bhr) y mre cmpex nns f his wn he heretica reatins etween he ew nns are accessie t a mre rigrus eaent han he hereca reatins ewen h ntins ha receded hem (mre rigrus frm he pn f iew n uman and hs wes). t is derent wh he rean t experimena eures measuring insmens can specie fr he grea majrity see igner, Amen Joal oPhysi V 31, 1963 p. 1) and where eicatn is pssie it emes necesary t mi wenwn an unrefuted
s
AAINST METHOD
hs eng the case what shall we ake of the ethodologcal deand that a theoy ust e udged y expeence and ust e ejected f t conadcts accepted asc stateents? hat attude shall we adopt towads the vaous theoes of conaon and coooaon whch all est on the assupon that theoes can e ade to agee wth the known facts and whch use the aount of ageeent eached as a pncple of evaluaon? hs deand these theoes ae now all seen to e qute useless hey ae as useless as a edcne that heals a paent ony f he s acteafee In pacce they ae neve oeyed y anyone Methodologsts ay ont to the potance of falscaons ut they lthey use falsed theoes they ay seonze how potant t s to consde all the elevant evdence and neve enon those g and dasc facts whch show that the theoes they ade and accept ay e as adly o as the ode theoes whch they eect In pri they slavshly epeat the ost ecent ponounceents of the top dogs n physcs though n dong so they ust volate soe vey asc ules of the tade Is t ossle to poceed n a oe easonale anne? Let us see! 2 Accodng to Hue theoes cannot e d ro facts he deand to adt only those theoes whch folow fo facts leaves us wthout any theoy Hence scence w know i can est only f we dop the deand and evse ou ethodology Accodng to ou pesent esults hadly any theoy s onsis wih the facts he deand to adt ony those theoes whch ae consstent wth the avaale and accepted facts agan leaves us wthout any theoy (I epeat wihou n ho fo thee s not a snge theoy that s not n soe toule o othe) Hence a scence as we know t can est only fwe dop ths deand also and agan evse ou ethodoogy now diing ounndution in iion o diing unsuod hpoh he ght ethod ust not contan
J
laws i a abiray way else t admit hat sme quite rdiay rbems fquantum mechanics such as he scaeri rbem d t have a slu M Joual fMathaal Phy Vl 36 1957 Thus he hey becmes a veritabe mnser f riur ad recisin whie its reatin t exeiece is mre bscure han ever I is iterestin see hat simiar develmets ccur rimitive thuh' The ms stiin featues f Nue sand dvini wites S.F Nader upe Relon 1954 63 is he cnast betwee its reteus theretical famewr and its rimitive and sishd aicatin i racice.' I des nt eed a sciece t duce Neumannian nihtmares 26. The existece f quaiave dicues r ces f resistance (S Auusine Conta Julanu, V xiv 51 Me Vl ), was used by he hurch fahers t defuse bjecns which he science f their tme had aised aainst a f he hrisa faih such as he dtine f he creal resueci
FIV
51
any rules that make us choose beween theores h bis o cion. Rather its rues must enabe us to choose beween theores whch we have aready tested nd which rd o preed further Not ony are facts and theories n constant disharmony they are never as nealy separated as eveone makes them out to be Methodoogica rues speak of theores 'obsea ons and eerimental results as if these were welldened objects whose properes are easy to evauate and which are understood in the same way by al sciensts However the materia which a scienst ul has at hs disposal his laws his eerimental results hs mathemacal technques his epistemological prejudices his atude towards the absurd con sequences of the theories whch he accepts is ndetenate n many ways ambiguous nd nr ul srd ro h hisol bk ound It is contamnated by prnciples whch he does not know and whch if known would be eemely hard to test Quesonabe vews on cognion such as the vew that our senses used in normal circumstances give reable nformaon about the world may nvade the obseaon language tsef consung the obseaonal tes as well as the disncon beween veridical and uso appearance As a result obseaon languages may become ed to older layers of speculaon whch aect n ths roundabout fashion even the most progressive methodolo (Eampe the absolute spaceme frame of classical physics which was coded and consecrated by Kant) he senso impression however simple contans a component that epresses the physioogica reacon of the perceivng organsm and has no objecve correlate his subjecve component often merges with the rest and forms an unsucured whole whch must be subdivded from the outside with the help of counternducve procedures ( eample is the appearance of a ed star to the naked eye whch contains the eects of rradiaon dracon diffusion restricted by the lateral inhibion of adacent elements of the rena and is further modied n the brain) Fnay there are the aulia premses whch are needed for the derivaon of testable nclusions and whch occasionay form enre ili scic. Consider the case of the Copeican hypothess whose nvenon defene and paral ndicaon runs counter to almost eve ethodologial rule one mght care to think of today he aula �ciences here contaned laws describng the properes and the uene of the terresial aosphere (meteorolo); opcal laws deaing with the sucure of the eye and of telescopes and with the haour of lght; and dynacal laws descrbing moon n movng sstes Most importanly however the aulia sciences contaned
5
AANS MEHOD
a theo of cognion that postulatd a crtain smpl relaon betwn percpons and physical objcts. Not all aulia dis cplnes were avaiable in explicit form Many of thm mrgd with th obseaon language, and led to th situaon dscribed at th bgnning of th prceding paragaph Consideraon of all ths circumstancs of obsaon tms senso co auia sciences backgound spcuaon suggst that a tho may b nconsistnt with the evdnc not bcaus t is incorrct bu bus h in is onind. Th tho s thatnd bcaus th evdnce ithe contans unanalysd snsa ons whch only paty corrspond to extal procsss or bcaus t is psented n terms ofanquatd vws or bcause t is evaluatd with th help ofbackwad aulia subjcts. Th Copcan tho was n oubl fo l ths rasons It is ths hiso-phsiologl hrr oh in the fact that it dos not mrly dscrib some obcv stat of aas bu o rs subj hil nd long-o viws concng ths stat of aais, that focs us to take a fsh look at mthodolo. t shows that it would b exmly mprudnt to t th vdnc udg ou theoris dctly and without any futh ado saghoad and unqua d judgmnt of thoris by 'facts s bound to elimnat das sip bus h no ino h rwork o so or osolo. Takng xperimental resuts and obsaons for gantd and putng th burden of proof on th theo mans taking th obsaonal doogy fo gantd without havng eve examind t. (Note that the experimnta results are supposed to hav ben obtand with th geatest possible care. Hnc taking obsaons, tc. fo gantd mans taking thm for ganted r th most carefu examinaon of their reliability: for ven th most carful xamnaon of an obsaon statement does not interfer with the concpts n whch t s xpssd o wth th suctur of the snso mag) Now - how can w possibly examn somthng w us al the me and psuppos n v statmnt? How can we cricz th tms in whch w habitually xpess ou obsaons? Lt us se! Th st stp n ou cricism of commonyusd concepts is to ceate a masur of cricism somethng with which thes concepts can be oprd Of course w shall lat want to know a tle mo about th masuringsck tself; for xampl, w shal want to know whth t is btt than o prhaps not as good as th matria xamined. But in ord fo h xaminaon to start th must b a masuringsck n th st place Therfo th st stp n our cricsm of customa concpts and customa racons s to stp
IV
53
sde the ccle ad ethe e a ew cceptual sysem, f eample a ew the, tha clashes wth the ms caefully estabsed bseaal esults ad cfuds the ms plausble theecal pcples, t mpt suc a sysem fm utsde scece, fm elg fm mythly, fm the deas f cm pees 27 the amblgs f madme Ths step s aga, cueduce Cuteduc s thus bth a sciece cld est wthut t ad a legmate ad much eeded mu the game f scece
27. I nereng o ee a Plolao wo iregare e eience of e
ene an e e ea in moon wa an unmaemaical confuon w e onfon wo foun e courage lackng n man grea obee an aeacall well-infoe en o regar e mmeiae eience of e e�e orer o remain n agreemen wi prncple e l beee. K on F Gdpble Ghihe aik Wssh Berinew York 191 p 65 erefore no urpriing a e nex ep on pa wa ue o a man woe wring a far a we know em ow m a a aene l an pulaer caonal nereing e of i own raer an a a profoun inker or exac _ b. p. 184 Conion an upercial inelecual meahewle e nke d ino e arker regon of e au uo or o expre i in a way, they remain stuck in he mud.
6 As n pl osuch n tp I in h ower rmen which h Asoins usd o ru h oion oh h. T io nur inerpreons is so os connd wih obsions h i n sp o r hir isc nd o in hir con Glio in h nur inrions which r inconsis wih Cis nd rc h oh.
seems o me ha [alieo suers greay from connua digressions, and hat he does not stop to explain al hat is relevan at each poin hich shos hat he has not examined hem in order, and hat he has merely sought reasons for pacuar eecs, ihou having considered . . . causes . . . and hus ha he has built ihout a foundaon
SRS I am (indeed) uniling to compress philosophical dines into he most narro kind of space and o adop ha s, concise and graceless manner, hat manner bare of any adoment hich pure geomecians call her on, not utering a singe ord hat has not been given o hem by strict necessiy . . . do no regard it as a fault o tak about many diverse things, even in hose eases hich have only a singe opic . . . fo beieve hat hat gives grandeu, nobiliy, and excelence to ou deeds and invenons does no lie in hat is necessa - hough he absence of i ould be a great misake - but ha is not. . . .
GL!LE But here common sense believes hat raonaizing sophiss have he intenon of shaking he ve fundamen of he commoneal, hen it oud seem o be no only reasonabe bu peissible, and even
5
x
55
praisewrthy to aid the gd cause wth sham reasons rather than leaving the advantage t the . . ppnent.
KNT As a concete illustaon and as a basis fo futhe discussion I shal now biely descibe the manne in which Galieo defused an impotant agument against the idea of the moon of the eath I say defused and not efuted because we ae dealing with a changing conceptual system as well as with ceain attempts at concealment Accoding to the agument which convinced Tycho, and which is used against the moon of the eath in Gaileos own raao l sra obseaon shows that heavy bodies . . faling down fom on igh go by a saight and vecal line to the suface of the eath This is consideed an iefutable agument fo the eath being moonless Fo ifit made the diua otaon, a towe fom whose top a k was let fall, being caied by the whing of the eath, would avel many undeds of yads to the east in the e the ock would consume in ts fal and the k ought to sike the eath that distance away fom he base of the towe. I The three qutans are: Descaes, leter t Mersenne f 1 1 Octber 1 638 I I , p. 380 aile, eter t Le f Tscana f 1 640 usal qte uner the tle Su CanLunae, Oe, Far, IU, p 491 Fr a etaile iscssin f aie's se an its cnnectin wth his naral phisph cf L Olschki, G und ene Zet Ghihte npahlih wihalih Litatu, V. Hale, 1927 repine Va, 1965. The leter Lep is qte an iscusse n pp. 455. Descaes' eter is iscsse b Salmn as an eample f the isse beeen anaism an empiicism in The Fnans f Scienc Inference, Mind and osmos e. ln, Pittsburgh, 1966 p. 136 I shu rather be regare as an eample f the issue beeen gmac methlgies an pnisc meth gies, bearing in min tha empiicism can be as src an uneling as the mst rigus pes f ranalism. The Kan qan is frm the Ctique ofPue Reon, 777 8(the qutan was bugh m aentn b Prfessr Stane Rsen's wrk n Plat's Symposium. Kan cnines Hweer, I wul think tha there is nthing tha ges ess wel gethe wth the inenn f asserng a g case than subtefuge, cncei, an eceptin. ne cl tae n this much f grante, then the bae f specuae easn . . . wu hae been cncue lng ag, wl sn cme t an en Ths the priy fa cause fen stans in the inerse prprn its th . ' One shl as ne ha Kan eplains the ise f ilion n the basis f isingenuus mes �hch hae the uncn t raise manin abe its ce past', ibi, 776 14f Simiar
deas cu in his account ofworld hiso. 2 Dialogue, op. cit., p 1 26.
5
AGANST METHOD
In considering the argument, Galeo at once admits the correcess of the sensory content of the observaon made, that 'heavy bodies . . . falling from a height, go perpendiculary to the surface of the earth 3 Considering an author (Chiaramon) who sets out to convert Copeicus by repeatedly menoning this fact, he says: I wish that ths author would not put himself to such trouble ying to have us understand from our senses that ths moon of falling bodies s simple saight moon and no other knd, nor get angry and complain because such a clear, obvous, and manifest thing should be caled nto queson For in this way he hints at believng that to those who say such moon s not saght at al, but rather circular, it seems they see the stone move vsbly in an arc, since he cals upon their senses rather than ther reason to clari the eect. Ths is not the case, Simplco; for just as I have never seen nor ever expect to see, the rock fall any way but perpendcularly, ust so do I beleve that t appears to the eyes ofeveryone else It s, therefore better to put asde the appearance, on whch we all agree, and to use the power of reason either to conrm ts reality or to reveal its faacy '4 The correcess of the observaon is not in queson at is n queson is its realty or fallacy at is meant by expresson? The queson is answered by an example that occurs in alleos net paragraph, 'from whch . . . one may ea how easiy anyone may be deceived by smple appearance, or let us say by the impressons of ones senses. This event is the appearance to those who avel along a seet by nght of beng folowed by the moon, with steps equal to theirs, when they see it go gliding along the eaves of the roofs There t looks to them just as would a cat realy runnng along the les and putng them behind t an appearance whch, if reason dd not ntervene, would only too obviously deceive the senses In ths example, we are asked to start with a sensory impresson and to consider a statement that is forcefully suggested by it (The suggeson s so strong that it has led to enre systems ofbeief and to rituals as becomes clear from a closer study of the lunar aspects of witchcraft and of other cosmological hypotheses.) Now reason intervenes the statement suggested by the mpression is exaned, and one consders other statements in its place. The nature of the impresson is not changed a bt by this acvity. (Ths is ony appromately ue; but we can omi for our present purpose the complicaons arising from an interacon of mpression and 3 ib, 4 ibi.,
p. 125. p 256
SIX
57
ppin) Bu i ene new bean aemen and play new ee we pa in u knwledge Wha ae he ean and he ehd which egulae uch an echange? T a wih, we mu becme clea abu he naue f he al phenmenn appeaance plu aemen. Thee ae n w ac ne, ncing a phenmenn he he, epeing i wih he help f he apppiae aemen bu on on viz. aying in a ceain bevanal iuan, 'he mn i fllwing me, , 'he ne i falling raigh dwn. We may, f cue, abacly ubdivide hi pce in pa and we may al y ceae a iuan whee aemen and phenmenn eem be pychgcay apa and waing be eaed (Thi i ahe dicul achieve and i pehap enely mpible.) Bu unde nma cicumance uch a divin de n ccu; decibing a famlia iuan i, f he peake, an even in which aemen and phenmenn ae mly glued gehe Thi uniy i he eu f a pe f eaing ha ar in ne chdhd Fm u ve eay day we ea eac iuan wih he apppiae epne, linguic heie The eaching pcedue bh shp he 'appeaance, 'phenmenn, and eablih a m connion wih wd, ha naly he phenmena eem peak f hemelve wihu uide hep eaneu knwledge They r wha he aciaed aemen ae hem e The language hey 'peak i f cue, inuenced by he belief f ealie genean whch have been hed f lng ha hey n lnge appea a epaae pincipe, bu ene he e f eveday dicue, and, afe he pecibed raining, eem emege fm he hng hemeve hi pin we may wan cmpae, in u imaginan and quie abracly, he eu f he eaching f dieen anguage incang dieen idelgie We may even wan cnciuy change me f hee idelgie and adap hem me 'mde pin fview i ve dicu ay hw hi will ae u iuan, uns we make he fuhe aumpn ha he quaiy and ucue f enan (pecepn), a lea he qualiy and ucue f he enan which ene he bdy f cience, i independen f hei inguic epein ve dubfu abu even he appmae validy f hi aumpn which can be efued by mple eample and am ue ha we ae depivng ueve f new and uiing dicveie a lng a we emain wihin he lim dened y i Ye, hall f he mmen, emain whn hee limi aking he addina impliing aumpn we can nw dnguih beween enan and he 'menal pean which
58
AGAINS MEHOD
follow o cloely upon the ene 5 an whch are o rmly connecte with their reacon that a eparaon i icult to achieve Coniering the orign an the eect of uch operaon I hall cal them nurl inrions. In the hitory of thought natural interetaon have been regare either a por prupposiions of cience or ele a prui which mut be remove before any eriou examinaon can begn The rt view that of Kant an in a very erent manner an on the bai of ve ierent talent that of ome contempora linguic philoopher. The econ view i ue to Bacon who ha preeceor however uch a the Gree cepc Galleo i one of thoe rare thiner who want neither forever to rin natura interetaon nor altogether to liin them Wholeale jugement of thi in are quite alien to hi way of thining. He init upon a il isussion to ecie which natura interetaon can be ept an which mut be repace Thi i not away cear from hi wring. Qute the cona. The metho of reminicence to which he appea o freely are eigne to create the impreion that nothing ha change an that we connue expreing our obeaon in o an familar way. Yet hi attue i relavely eay to acertain: natural interetaon are ns. The ene alone without the help of reaon cannot gve u a ue account of nature What i neee for arrving at uch a ue account are the . . ene opni rsonin. Moreover in the argument ealing with the moon of the earth it i thi reaoning t i the connotaon of the obeaon term an no the meage of the ene or the appearance that caue trouble 'It i therefore better to put aie the appearance on which we al agree an to ue the power of reaon either to conrm it reality or to reveal it fallacy 7 Conrmng the reaity or revealing the falacy ofappearance mean however examining the valiity of thoe natural interetaon which are o inmatey connecte with the appearance that we no longer regar them a eparate aumpon. I now tu to the rt natura interetaon implicit in the arment from falling tone Accoring to the Copeican view a preuppoe in the tower arment the moon of a faling tone houl be mixe aight ancircuar.8 By the 'moon of the tone i meant not it moon relave to ome viible mar in the viual el of the obeer or it 5. Facis Baco u anu Iducio. 6. ialoe op. ci. p. 255 italcs 7 ibid. p. 256. 8. bd p. 248.
y
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obsered moon but rather its moon n the solar system or in (absolute) space ie its rl oion The familar facts appealed to in the argument present a different kind of moon a simple vecal moon This refutes the Copecan hypothesis only f the concept of moon that occurs in the obseraon statement is the same as the onept of moon that occus n the Copecan predicon The obseraon statement the stone is fallng saight down must therefore refer to a movement in (absolute) space It must refer to a real moon Now the force of an argument from obseraon derives from the fact that the obseraon statements involved are rmly connected with appearances There is no use appealing to obseraon if one does not know how to descibe what one sees or ifone can oer ones descipon with hesitaon only as if one had just leaed the language in which it is formulated Producing an obseraon statement then consists of two very dierent psychological events () a clear and unambiguous ssion and (2) a clear and unambiguous connion between this sensaon and pats of a anguage This s the way in which the sensaon is made to speak Do the sensaons in the above agument speak the language of eal moon? They speak the language of eal moon n the context of 1th entu eveday thought At least ths s what Galleo tells us He tells us that the eveday thinking of the me assumes the operave harate of l moon or to use wellknown philosophical terms t assumes n rlis wih rpc o oion except fo occasional and unavodable llusons appaent moon is idenal with eal (absolute) moon Of course this disncon s not elictly drawn One does not rst disnguish the appaent moon fom the eal moon and then connect the two by a corespondence ule One rather desribes perceives acts towads moon as if it wee aleady the real thing Nor does one proceed in ths manne unde all rumstanes It s admtted that obects may move which ae not seen to move; and it is also admtted that certain moons are illusory (f the example of the moon menoned ealie n ths chapter) Aparent moon and real moon are not always idene d Howeve ere are prdigic c n whh it is psychologically very dicult not planly mpossble to admt decepon It is from these aradia ases and not from the excepons that naive realism ith respect to moon derives its sength These ae also the uaons n which we rst lea our kinemac vocabula Fom ou ery hidhood we lea to eact to them wth conepts whch have nave realsm built right nto them and whch nexicably connect
0
AAINS OD
movement and the appearance of movement The motion of the stone n the tower argument, or the aleged moon of the earth is such a paradigmatic case How could one possibly be unaware of the swi moo of a large bul of matter such as the earth is supposed to be How coud one possibl be unaware of the fact that the falling stoe traces a vastly extended trajecto through space From the point ofview of 7thcentu thought and language, the argument s, therefore, impeccabe and quite forcefu However, noce how hos (operave character' of all motion; essena correcess of sense reports) which are not formulated explicity, enter the debate in the guise of obserable events We realize again that such events are Trojan horses which must be watched most carefully How is one supposed to proceed in such a scy situaon? The argument from fallng stones seems to refute the Copecan view his may be due to an inherent disadvantage ofCopeicanism; but t may also be due to the presence ofnatura interetaons which are in need of mprovement The rst tas, then, is to disr and to isolate these unexamned obstacles to progress It was Bacon's belef that natura nteretaons could be discovered b a method of analysis that pees the o, one aer another unl the senso core of eve obseraon is aid bare Ths method has serious drawbacks First, natural interetaons of the kind considered by Bacon are not just d to a previously esng eld of sensations hey are instrumental n onsiuing the ed as Bacon says himsef Elimnate al natural interetaons and you also elmnate the ablity to think and to perceve Second dsregarding this fundamental funco of natura nteretaons, it shoud be clear that a person who faces a perceptual ed wthout a singe natural interetaon at his disposal would be op disod he could not even s the busness of science The fact that we start even after some Baconan analysis therefore shows that the analysis has stopped prematurely t has stopped at precisely those natura interetaons of which we are not aware and wthout which we cannot proceed t folows that the intenon to start from scratch, after a complete removal of all natura interetaons is sef defeang Furthermore, it is not possibe even p to unravel the custer of natura interetaons At rst sght the task would seem to be sipe enough One takes obseraon statements, one after the other and analyses ther content However concepts that are idden in obseraon statements are not iely to reveal themselves in the more abstract parts of language f they do it wl s be dicut to nai them down; concepts, ust lke percepts are ambiguous and
SIX
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dependent on background Moreover, the content of a concept is determined aso by the way in which it is reated to percepon Yet, how can this way be discovered without circuaty? Percepons must be idened, and the idenng mechanism wi contain some of the very same eements which gove the use of the concept to be nvesgated We never peneate this concept competey for we aways use part of it in the attempt to nd its constuents There is ony one way to get out of this circe, and it consists in using an tal meaure ofcomparion incuding new ways of reang concepts and percepts. Removed from the doman of natura discourse and from a those prcipes habits, and attudes whch constute its form ofife, such an extea measure wi ook sange indeed This, however, is not an argument aganst its use On the contary, such an impression of sangeness reveas that natura interpretaons are at work, and is a rst step towads their discovery Let us expain this situaon with the hep of the tower exampe The exampe is intended to show that the Copeican view is not in accodance with 'the facts Seen from the point of view of these facts, the idea of the moon of the earth is outandish, absud, and obviousy fase, to menon ony some of the expessions which wee frequenty used at the me, and which ae s head wheneve professiona squaes confront a new and counter-factua theory This makes us suspect that the Copeican view is an extea measuing rod of precisey the kind descibed above Let us therefore tu the argument around and use it as a teing ice that heps us to discover the natura interpretaons which ecude the moon of the earth Tuing the argument around, we t ae the moon of the earth and th inquire what changes wi remove the contradicon Such an inquiry may take consideabe me, and thee is a good sense in which it is not nshed even today. The conadicon may stay wth us for decades or even centues. S it mut be upheld un we have nished our eamnaon or ese the eaminaon, the attemp to discover the antediuvian com ponents of ou kowedge, cannot even start This, we have seen, is oe of the reasons one can give for retaining and, pehaps, even for �tng, theoies which are inconsistent with the facts deoogca gdients of our knowedge and, more especiay, of our bservaons are discovered with the hep of theoies which are refuted by them. Th are dic(ered countenducte. Let me repeat what has been asserted so fa Theoies ae tested, nd pssiby efuted, by facts Facts contain ideoogica components, dr views which have vanished from sight or were pehaps never fonuated in an expicit manner Such components are highy
AGAS MHOD
suspcous Fst, because of thei age and obscue oign: we do not know why and how they wee ntoduced secondly because the ve natue potects them and always has potected them, fom cical examinaton. In the event of a conadcon between a new and inteesng theo and a collecon of mly establshed facts, the best pocedue, theefoe, s not to abandon the theo but to use it to dscove the hidden pinciples esponsible fo the conadcon. Counteinducon is an essenal pat of such a pocess of discove. (Excellent histoical example: the aguments against moon and atomicity of Pamendes and Zeno. Diogenes of Snope, the Cynic, took the simple couse that would be taken by many contempoa sciensts and all contempoa philosophes: he efuted the aguments by isng and walkng up and down. The opposite couse, ecommended hee, has led to much moe nteesng esults, as s wiessed by the histo of the case. One should not be too had on Dogenes, howeve, fo it is also epoted that he beat up a pupl who was content wth his efutaon, exclaimng that he had gven easons which the pupl should not accept without addional easons of his own. Havng dsrd a pacula natual inteetaon, how can we n t and it? Obvously we cannot poceed n the usual way i.e. deve pedicons and compae them wth esults o obsea on. These esults ae no longe available. The dea that the senses, employed unde nomal cicumstances, poduce coect epots o eal events, o example epots of the eal moon of physcal bodies, has been emoved fom all obseaonal statements. (Remembe that ths noon was found to be an essenal pat of the an Copeican agument.) But without t ou senso eacons cease to be elevant fo tests. Ths concluson was genealzed by some olde aonalsts, who decided to build thei science on eason ony and ascibed to obseaon a quite insigncant aula funcon. Galieo does not adopt this pedue. I on natua inteetaon causes touble fo an atactve vew, and i its lnon emoves the vew fom the domain o obseaon, then the ony acceptable pocedue is to use ohr inteetaons and to see what happens. The inteetaon which Galileo uses estoes the senses to thei poson as instments o exploaon, bu on wh rp o h rl orl oon Moon among things which shae it n common s non-opeave, that s, it emains insensible, impecepble, and wthout any eect
9 egel, Volun die Ghihe d Philohi l ed. C Michele!, Berln, 1 8 289
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3
whatever' Gale's rst step, n hs jt exanan f the pecan dcine and f a falar but hdden natural tepreta tin, cnssts therefre n rlcing h lr dr inrion n ther wrds, h inroduc nw obsion lng Ths s, f curse, an enrely legate ve n general, the bservan language whch enters an arguent has been n use fr a lng e and s qute falar Cnsderng the suctue f cn ds n the ne hand, and f the Arsttelan phlsphy n the the, nethe ths use n ths faarty can be egaded as a test f the undeyng prncples These prncpes, these natua tepreta ns, ccu n every descrpn Exadnary cases whch ght ceate dcues ae defused wth the help f adjustr wds', 1 such as ke' analgus', whch dvert the s that the basc nt eans unchalenged A test s, hwever, urgenty needed t s especaly needed n thse cases whee the prncples see t theaten a new thery t s then qute reasnabe t duce alteave bsean anguages and t cpare the bth wth the rgnal d and wth the thery unde exanan Prceedg 0 Diae op i, p 1 7 1 Galieo's kinema relavsm is not onsistent n te passage oed, e proses te view ( 1) tat sared moon no hatso Moon,' e says, in so fa as it is and ats as moon, to ta exen es eavely o ings ta ak i and among ings wi all sae equaly in any moon, i ds no at and is as ifit did no exist 1 1 6); Waeve moon omes o be atibuted to te ea ms neessaily emain impeepbe so long we lk only at teesa objets' 1 4); moon ta is ommon o many movng tings is ide and inonsequena o e elaon of ose movabes among emseves 1 1 6) On te ote and, (2 e also sggess ta noing m in a staiht line natue Te moon of all eesal objets is in a ile; sips, oaes, oes, bids, all move in a ie aound te ea; e moions ofe pas of animals ae all iula in sm we ae foed to assume at ony ia oum and lia suum move appaeny in a taigt ine but even at is not eain as ong as it no been poven at e ea is a est' 19). ow, if (2 is adopted, ten te lse pa of systes moving in a staigt line wil end to desibe ia pats, tus onading (1) is tis inonsisteny wi as pompted me o split Galieo's agment into two steps, one eaing wit e elaviy of moon (only elave moon notie te ote dealing it inea aws (and only inetial moon le the elation bete thepas ofa st unted assming, of ose, tat neigbouing ineal moons ae appoxmaely paalel Fo te two seps ofte agumen, see e nex ape One ms also ealie at acepng elavy of moon fo inea pas means giving p te ietus th �i poves an (inne ause fo moons and teefoe assmes an absolue spae m w tis ase beomes manifest Tis Galieo seems to ave done by now, fo is agumen fo te existene ofboundless' o pepetual' moons wi e ouines on p. 47 of te Dialoue appeals o moons wi ae nea, ie neite natual no oce, an wi may teefoe (? be assmed o go on fo eve J.L. Asn, Sse and Ssibilia, ew Yok, 964 p 74 Adjusto wods pay
an Impoan role in he Arisoteian phiosophy.
4
AGAIS MTO
his way we mus mae sure hat he comparison isir That is we mus no cricize an idiom hat is supposed to funcon as an obseraon lanage because it is no ye well nown and is herefore, less strongly connected with our senso reacons and less plausible han is anoher more common idiom Supercial cricisms of his ind which have been elevated into an enre philosophy, abound in discussions of he mindbody problem Phlosophers who wan to introduce and to test new views hus nd hemselves faced not wih ns which hey coud most liey answer but wih an impenerabe stone wall of wellentrenched rions. This is not at all different from he attude of people ignoran of foreign anages who feel ha a certan colour is much beter described by red han by osso As opposed to such atempts at conversion by appeal to famliarity ( know what pans are and also know, fom inospecon hat hey have nohing whatever o do wih material pocesses!), we must emphasize hat a compaave udgement of obseraon lanages, eg. materiaisc obseraon lanages phenomenalisc obseraon lanages obectiveidealisc obseraon lanages heological obseraon lanages etc can start ony wh o h r spok qu u Let us now connue with our anaysis ofGaleo's easoning
7 h nw nur inrions onsiu n nd high bsrt obsion ngug h r indud and conceaed so h onis o noi h hng h hs k p hod onnis T onin h i oh eaty of a moon nd h aw of ccua nea
Gaeo epaces one natura nteretaon by a ery derent and as yet (1630) at east partly unnatura ntepretaon How does he poceed? How does he manage to ntoduce absud and counter nduce asseons such as the asseon that the earth moes, and yet get them a just and attene heang? One ancpates that aguments wl not suce an nteesng and hghy mpotant mtaon of aonalsm and Gaeo's utteances ae ndeed arguments n appearance ony o Galleo uses prgn He uses phoogi n addon to whatee ntellectua easons he has to oe These cks ae ery successful they lead hm to ctory But they obscure the new attude towads expeence that s n the makng, and postpone fo centues the possblty of a easonable phlosophy They obscue the fact that the expeence on whch Galeo wants to base the Copecan ew s nothng but the result of hs own fele magnaon, that t has been invd They obscue ths fact by nsnuang that the new resuts whch emege ae known and conceded by all, and need only be called to ou attenon to appea as the most obous expesson of the tuth Galleo remnds us that thee ae stuaons n whch the non operate chaacte of shared moton s just as edent and as my beleed as the dea of the opeae chaacte of al moon s n othe �rcumstances (Ths latte dea s, theefoe, not the ony natua nterpretaton of moon) The stuaons ae: eents n a boat, n a smoothly mong carrage, and n othe systems that contan an obseer and permt hm to carry out some smple opeaons Sae: Tere as us cured o me a cerain fanasy wic assed oug my imaginaon one day wie was saiing o Aeppo,
65
AGAST METHO
whr was going as consul for our coun. . . . I fth pon of a pn had bn on th ship during my whol voyag from Vnic o Alxandrta and had had th propry of lavng vsibl marks of is whol ip, wha ac - wha mark - wha lin would i hav lf? mplo: t would hav lf a lin xnding from Vnic o thr no prfctly saigh - or rathr, not lyng in th prfc arc of a circl bu mor or lss uctuang according as th vssl would now and again hav rockd. Bu this bnding in som placs a yard or two o th righ or lf, up or down, lngth of many hundrds of mls, would hav mad lil araon in th whol xn ofth in. Ths would scarcly b snsibl, and, withou an rror of any momn, i could b cad par of a prfc arc. : So tha if th luctuaon of th wavs wr takn away and h moon of th vssl wr cam and ranqui, h u and prcis moon of ha pn would hav bn an arc of a prfc circl. Now if I had had that sam pn connualy in my hand, and had movd i only a lil somms this way or that, wha alraons should I hav broug ino h main xn of this in? mplco: Lss than tha which would b gvn o a saigh lin a thousand yards long which dvad from absou saighss hr and hr by a a's y : Thn if an ars had bn drawing wih ha pn on a sh of papr whn h f th por and had connud doing so all h way o Alxandra, h would hav bn abl o driv from h pns moon a who narrav of many rs, complty racd and skchd in thousands of drcons wh andscaps, buidings, anmas, and othr things. Y h actua ra ssnal movmn markd by th pn point woud hav bn only a lin; ong, indd, bu v simpl. Bu as o th arst's own acons, hs would hav bn conducd xactly th sam as if h ship had n standing sll. Th rason ha o th pns long moon no rac woud rmain xcp h mars drawn upon th papr is ha th gross moon from Vnic to Alxandra was common to h papr h pn and vryhng ls in h shp. Bu th sma moons ack and forth o right and ft communicatd y th arss grs o th pn u not o h papr, and blongng o th or aon, coud thry av a ac on th papr whch rmaind staona o hos moons.
I Doe, p c pp. I 7 I .
SEV
7
Or Saiati: . Imagine youelf in a oat with you eyes ed on a
point of the sai yard. Do you think that ecause the oat is moving aong risky, you wi have to move your eyes order to keep your vsion aways on that point ofthe sail and folow its moon? Smplo I sure that I shoud not need to make any change at all; no ust as to my vision u if had aimed a musket I should never have to move i a hairsreadth to keep it aimed, no matter how the oa moved Saiati nd this comes aou ecause the moon which the ship confe upon the sai yard, i confers also upon you and upon your eyes so that you need no move them a i in order o gaze at the op of the sail yard, which consequently appears moonless to you (nd the rays of vision go from the eye to the sai yard ust as if a cord were ed etween the wo ends of the oa N a hundred cords are ed at dierent ed points, each of which keeps its pace whether the ship moves or remains s t is clear that these situaons ead to a nonoperave concep of oon even wthn comon sense On the other hand, common sense, and mean 17th-entu talian-asan comon sense, also contains the idea of the t character of all oon This later idea arises when a limited objec that does not contain too any parts oves in vast and stabe surroundings for exaple, when a cael ots through the desert, or when a stone descends fro a tower ow Galieo urges us to reeber the condions in which we assert the nonoperave character ofshared oon in this case aso and to subsue the second case under the rst Thus, the rst of the two paradigms of nonoperave oon enoned above is followed by the asseon that t is ikewse ue that the earth being oved, the oon of the stone in descending is actually a long setch of any hundred yards, or even any thousand and had it been able to ark its course in ooness air or upon some other surface, it would have left a ve long slanng line Bt that part of all this oon which is coon to the rock, the 2. bd, pp. 249 That phenomea o e moon depend on ee moon has
been ee d y uclid in hi , Theon red. par 9 A od scholio o par. 50 use te eample of a boat leavig the arour: Heierg vii, 283 The eample i repeted y Copecu i Bk 1 , Chapter vi, oDe Rl. t was a commoplace in edaeal optics Cf Witelo, Ppea par 1 38 (Bae, 1 572, p 1 80).
68
AGANST MTHOD
tower, and ourselves remains insensible and as if it dd not est. There remains obseabe only that part in which neither the tower nor we are parcipants; in a word, that with which the stone, in faling, measures the tower'3 And the second paradigm precedes the exhoaon to ansfer this argment to the whiring of the earth and to the rk paced on top of the tower, whose moon yo cannot dsce becase, in common wth the rock, yo possess from the earth that moon which s reqired for foowing the tower yo do not need to move your eyes. Next f yo add to the rock a downward moon which s pecliar to t and not shared by yo, and which is mixed with ths crcar moon the crcar poron of the moon which s common to the stone and the eye connes to be mpercepble The saght moon aone is sensble for to folow that yo mst move yor eyes downwards' 4 This is song persason ndeed. Yelding to this persasion we now qui uicl start confoundng the condions of the two cases and become reavists This s the essence of Galieo's cke! As a rest the clash between Copecs and the condons aecng orseves and those n the ar above s5 dssoves nto thn air, and we naly realize that al terresal events from which it s ordinariy held that the earth stands sl and the sn and the ed stars are moving wod necessary appear jst the same to s f the earth moved and the other stood sll'.6 3. ibi 1 72 4 ibi 250 5 Ptoemy Synt i 7 6 Dialoe, o cit 46: cf the Dialo Conin T N Si, sl He Crew Alfoso e Savio ew Yor 195 . 64: The se exeriet which t rst glce seeme to show oe thig whe more crefuly exie sures us of the co' Professor McMuli i crique of this wy of eeig thigs wts more logic biohica jusco for my sseo tht Gieo ot oly rgue but so chete A Txooy of the Reo betwee Histo Phiosohy of Sciece' Minnota Studi, Vol. 5 Mieolis 97 39] he obects to the wy i which et Glileo iouce ymicl revism Accorig to hi wht Gaileo rgues is tht sice his ooet alea iterets obseos me i such cotext [movemets o bo] i "revisc wy how c he cosistey o otherwise i the cse of obseos me o the eth's surfce' (ibi ). This is iee how Gieo rgues. But he rgues so git oet who ccorig to hi feels gret reugce towrs recogizig this o oerve quity of oo mog the thigs which shre it i coo' (Dialoe, o cit. . 7 ) who is covice tht bt from hvig relve oos h aolutepositions and motions we (cf. Aristoe Physics 20b) who t y rte h evelo the of usig ieret oos o ieret cios without ig ito coico ow if th is the sio to be ttcke the showig tht
SV
Let us now loo at the situation rom a ore abstrat oint o view W start with two onetual sub-systems oorinary' thought (see e olowing table) One o them regars moon as an absolute roess whih always has eets eets on our senses inlue The esriton o this onetual system given here may be somewhat ieaize but the arguments o Coeius oonents whih are uote b alileo himsel an aoring to him are very ausible' show that there was a wiesrea teneny to thin in its terms an that this teneny was a serious obstale to the isussion o alteave ieas Oasionally one ns even ore rimive ways o thining where onets suh as u an own' are use absolutely Examles are: the asseron that the earth is too hea to limb u over the sun an then all healong bak own again or the asseron that ater a short me the mountains sinng ownwar with the rotaon o the terresal globe woul get into suh a osion that whereas a ittle earlier one woul have ha to imb steey to their eaks a ew hours ater one wou have to stoo an esen in orer to get there 9 aileo in his margina notes als these utterly hiish reasons whih] sue to kee imbeies believing in the ty o the earth 1 an he it unneessary to bother about suh men as those whos n is ion or to take noe o their ooleries et it is ear that the absoute iea o moon was wellenenhe an that the attemt to reae it was boun to enonter song resistane 1 2
ppnent has a relate ea f mtn r frequenty uses the relae ea n hs eeryay aars, s nt at all prf f ncnsstency n s w "parag McMulln, p. ct, p. ) It ust reeals ne pa f that parag witht tuchng the ther The argent ts t the esre prf ly if the aslte s ether suppresse r spirite away, r else ente wth the relaisc n an ths s at Galle actualy s thugh suepttsly, as I hae e t shw 7 Dialoue p ct p 328 8 p 327. 9 ib. p. 330 10 b p 327. I . b p 327 talcs ae 2 Te ea that there is an aslte recn n the unierse has a ery nterest stry. It res n the stctre f the grataal el the srface f the eart, r that pa f the earth whch the bseer kws an generalizes the eperences ae there. The generalin s nly rarely regare as a separate ypthes it rather ete the gramar f c sense an gies the tes p' an n a abslute eaning. This is a natral inteetat precsely the sense that was explane n the te abe. Lactans, a Chrch father f the frth cetury appeas t this eang when he asks (Di nstitution I l l , De F apenta Is ne really gng t s cnfuse as t se the estence f hmas hse feet are abe ther heas Where trees an t grw t pwars, t
70
GIS MHO D
he second concetal system is bilt arond the elavty of moon and is also wellenenched in its own domain of alcaon. Galileo ams at elacing the st system by the second in l cases, teresial as well as ceesal Nave easm th esect to moon s to be plt liintd. Now, we have seen that ths naive realsm is on casons essenal art of or obseaonal vabla On these occasons aadgm the obseaon lanage contans the dea of the ecacy of l moon. Or to exess t n the material mode of seech or exerience in these sitaons s an exerience of obects Pr/ Moon of compact obects in stable suoundings of great spaal extension deer obseed by the hunter.
Pr Moon of objects in boats, coaches and other moing systems.
Nurl nr: l moon s operae
Nurl nr: Only relae moon is operae
Falling stone p
Earth at rest
Moon of earth prds
Oblique moon ofstone
Fallng stone p
No r moon between stang point and earth
Moon of earth prdis
!
No relave moon between stang point and stone
dwards? h sam us f anguag s prsupsd by tha mass f unturd mn wh ras th qusn why th anpdans ar n fallng th ah (Pny, atualHto, II, pp I 61, cf. als Plmy, Synt, I, ) h atmpts fhals, namns and Xnphans nd supp fr th ah whch prvn frm fallng dwn (rs, De Coelo 294al2 shws ha alms al arly phlsph, wih th sl cpn f namandr, shard n hs way f thnng. (Fr th msts, wh assum ha h ams rgnally fall dwn, cf Jammr, C of Spe, Cambrdg, Mass, I 953, p l I) vn Gal, wh hrughly ridcus th da f h fallng anpds (Dialoe, p ct, p 33 I), cnally spas f th uppr half f h mn, manng hat pa f h mn whch s nvisbl us nd l us n frg tha sm lngusc phlsphrs f day wh ar t stupd t rcgn thr lmtans (Gall, p ct, p. 32) want t rviv th abslut manng f up-dwn at t loal hus h pwr vr h mnds f hs cnmpraris f a primv cncptual fram, assumng an anspc wrld, whch Gali had als t ght, mus nt b undrsmatd. Fr an amnan f sm pcs f Brsh cmmn sns at h m f Gall, ncludng nmcal cmmn sns, s E.M.W. ilyard, The Elethan Wold Piue, ndn, 1963 h agmnt btwn ppular pnn and h cnay symmc unv s frquny assd by rst, g n De Coelo, p 308a23f
SEVE
71
hich move absoltely aking ths nto consideraon t is apparent that Galleos proposal amonts to a paral revision of or obseaon lanage or of or experience expeence hch partly ns the idea of the moon of the eath s ed into an experience that nns it, at least as far as teresal thngs' are conceed 3 hs is hat ual has. Bt Galileo ants to persade s that no change has taken place that the second conceptal system is already niversally knn, even thogh it is not niversally used Savia, his representave n the Daloe, his opponent Smplcio and Sagedo the ntelligent layman all connect Galileo's method of armentaon ith Plato's theo ofanans a clever taccal move ypically Galilean one s nclned to say Yet e mst not alo orselves to be deceived abot the revolona development that s actally takng place. he resistance aganst the assmpon that shared moon is non operave as eqated th the resistance hch forgotten deas exhbit toards the attempt to make them knon Let s accept this neean of the resistance! Bt let s not forget its se e mst then admt that t rescts the se of the relavisc ideas, conning them to pa of or eveday expeence Ous ths pat, ie in inteaneta space, they are forgotten and therefore not acve Bt otsde ths pat there is not complete chaos. ther concepts are sed among them hose ve same absolsc concepts hich deve from the rst paradigm e not ony se them e mst aso admit that they are enrey adeqate. No dcles arise as long one remans ithin the limts of the rst paradigm Experience' e the totality of all facts from a domains cannot force s to car ot the change hch Galeo ants to nodce he move for a change mst come from a dierent sorce. It comes rst from the desre to see the hole [corespond] to ts pts ith ondef simplicty', 1 4 as Copecs had aeady 3 Daloue, op cit, pp 32 d 4 4 bd p. 34 Gieo quotes here from Copeicus address to Pope Pau i D Routonbus; cf. so Chapter I 0 ad the aato Pma quoted from E Rose, r n eats, ew or, 99 p ) For these pheomea appear b ied most ob together as b a gode chai ad each of the paets, by its sitio ad order, ad eve iequait of its moo, bea wiess that the eah ov ad that we who dwe u the gobe of the ah, istead of accepg its cha o positio, beieve that the paets wader i a sos o moos o their ow Note that empirica easos are abset rom the argumet ad have to be, or Copeicus himseadmi (ommtaos, op cit, p 7) that the Ptoemaic theo is cosistet with the umerica data.
7
AAS MEHOD
expressed himself. It comes from the typicay metaphyscal urge' fo unty of understandng and conceptual presentaon And the move for a change is connected, secondly, with the nenon to make oom from the moon of the earth, which Galleo accepts and is not prepared to ve up. The dea of the moon of the eart is closer to the rst paradgm than to the second, or at least t was at the me of Gaileo. Ths gave sength to the Arstotean arguments, and made them plausble To eimnate the plausblty, t was necessa to subsume the rst paadgm unde the second, and to extend the elave noons to all phenomena The dea of anans funcons here as a psycholocal cutch, as a lever whch smooths the process of subsumpon by conceaing its estence As a result we are now ready to apply the relave noons not ony to boats, coaches, bids, but to the solid and well-established eart' as a whoe. And we have the mpression that this readiness was n us all the me, though it took some eort to make it conscous. This impresson s most certanly erroneous: it s the esult of Galileo's propagandsc machnaons We would do better to descbe the stuon in a dieent way, as a change of our conceptual system. O, because we ae dealng with concepts which belong to naual interpreaons, and which are therefore connected with sensaons n a very direct way, we should descbe it as a hange fee that alows us to accommodate the Copecan docne It is this change which undeles the ansion from the Astotelan pont of view to the epstemoo of mode science. Fo experience now ceases to be the unchangeable fundament which t is both n common sense and n the Astotelan phiosophy The attempt to support Copecus makes expeence id' n the ve same manne n whch it makes the heavens ud, so that each str oves around in t by itsel.15 An empcst who starts from expeence, and builds on t without ever lookng back, now loses the ve ground on which he stands. Neither the earth, the sod, well establshed eart' no the facts on which he usually elies can be tusted any longe It is clea that a philosophy that uses sch a d and channg expeence needs new methodolocal pnciples which do not insst on an asymmeic judgement of theoes by experience. Classal phs nuvely adopts such pncpes; at least its great and ndependent thnkes such as Newton Faaday, Boltzmann proceed n ths way But ts al ne sll clngs to the dea of a stable and unchanng bass The cash between ths . Daloe, p. cit. p. 120.
SEVEN
7
doctrin and th actual procdur is concald y a tndnous prsntaon of th esuls of rsarch that hids thir rvoluonay origin and suggsts that thy aros from a stal and unchangng sourc Ths mthods of concamnt start with Galios attmpt to introduc nw idas undr th covr of anamnsis and thy culminat in Nwton 6 Thy must xposd ifw want to ariv at a ttr account of th progrssiv lmnts n scnc My dscusson of th anopican argumnt s not yt complt So far I hav trid to discovr what assumpon wll mak a ston ha es aln a ng e appar to fall saight down instad of ing sn to mov in an arc Th assumpon which shall call th ela pnple, that our snss noc only rav moon and ar insnsiv to a moon which ojcts hav in common was sn to do th ick What rmains to xpland is h he sne sas h he e and is not lft hnd In ordr to sav th opcan viw on must xpan not only why a moon that prss th rlaon among visil ojcts ans unned, ut also why a common moon of various ojcts dos not act thr rlaon That s on must xplan why such a moon is not a causal agnt Tug th quson around in th mannr xpaind in th txt to fooot 10, pag 3 of th last chaptr t s now apparnt that th anopcan argumnt dscrd thr rsts on natural intrprtaons: th al assupn that asolut moon is always nd, and th dnal pnple that ojcts such as th falling ston) which ar not itrfrd wth assum thr natural moon For Aristotians th natural moon of an ojct not intrfrd with is , i constancy of qualis and of posion This corrsponds to our own xprinc whr thigs hav to pushd around to mov Th discovy of sds actra viruss would hav n impossl without a m lif in th qualitav part of th law and it conmd t in a most mprssv way sing this aw scinsts ifrd that a ston droppd from a towr situatd on a moving ath would lft hnd Thus th rlavity principl must comind with a nw aw of na in such a fashon that th moon of th ath can s assrtd On ss at onc that th foowing law th pnple fula nea as I shall call it provids th rquird soluon: an ojct that movs with a gvn angular vlocty on a frconlss sphr around th cn of th arth will connu moving wth th sam anguar vity for vr 6 Classcal Empricsm', op it 7. hs s the aout of moo the smolol aout we hae
Circula moton above and upand-down motons on eah.
4
A G A I S T M E T H O D
Combining the appearance of the falng stone wth the reavity prnciple, the prncipe of circuar iera and some smpe assumpons conceing the composon of veies, 1 8 we obin an argument which no longer endangers Copecus' view, but can be used to gve it para support. The relavity prnciple was defended in two ways The rst was by showng how it heps Copeicus: this defence is ho but not obeconabe because necessa for revealing natural ntere ons. The second was by poinng to its funcon in common sense, and by surrepously generalzig that funcon (see above) No idependent argument was gven for its valdity. Galileos support for the prnciple of circular inera is of exactly the same knd. He inoduces the prncple, agai not by reference to experiment or to independent obseaon, but by reference to what eveone s aready supposed to know. mp: So you have not made a hundred tests or even one And yet you so freely declare it to be ceain . . . : Without eperimnt am sure that he eect will happen as I tell you because it must happen hat way; and I might add tha you youelfaso know hat it cannot happen oheise, no mater ow you may pretend not o know i. . But am so handy at picking peoples brains hat I shal make you confess his in spite of yourself. 1 9
Step by step, Smplici is forced to admit that a body that moves, wthout frcon, on a sphere concenic with the cene of the earth 8 These ssumpons wee not t l mter ofcourse, but conicted wth some e bic ide ofAtoten physics The princple ofcculr ne s relted to the mpetus heo, but not idenc wh t. The mpetus theo etins the ide ht t needs force to bring bout chnge, but t pus the force nside the chnng object Once pushed, n object connues mong in the me wy n whch heted obect stys w boh contn th cuse of her new stte Glleo mies hs ide n two wy First, the crculr moon s supposed to on foreer while n object kept mong by mpeus wll gduly sow down, just heted obect, is nogue, gdully becomes colder Th rgumnt for ths modcon is gven n he tex beow t s puly hetoc Secondy, the etel cculr moons must preed wthout cuse f eve moons re not operve, hen noducng moon wth he sm cene nd the sme ngur veiy s cicu moton uphed by mpeus cnno eimnt forces we on the wy fom mpetus to momenum cf A Mer, ie Voluf Galils im Jahhun, ome, 99) Al these chnges re oveooked by thos who ssum t the nson w the simpe sut of new nd beter dynmcs nd th the dynmc w dy vb, but hd not yet been pplied n deenned wy 9 loe, op c, p. 5.
75
SEE
will car out a boundless, a peetual oon We know, of course, especally after the analysis we have just copleted of the nonoperave character of shared oon, that what Simplico accepts is based nether on experent nor on corroborated theory It i a daring new suggeson nvolving a eendous leap of the iaginaon. A little ore anaysis then shows that this suggeson is connected with experients, such as the experents' of the Dc by hc hypotheses. (The aount of fricon to be eliminated follows not fro independent nvegaons such invesgaons coence only uch ater, n the 1 8th century - but fro the result to be aceved, the crcular law of nera) Viewng natural phenoena in this way eads to a reevaluaon of al experience, as we have seen We can now add that it eads to the invenon of a n k fece that is not only ore sopscated bu a fa e spelae han the experience of Aristotle or of 20 o a Copeican the only leap invoved was the idenaon of the eah a ceesal oet Aodng to Aristote elesal oets move in iles and a y that moves in a le h neither heavness no lighess fo it annot hange its distane fom the ene, neithe in a natual no in a foed way De oelo 26934f 2 1 ncidentally, many of the exrienes o experimen used in the aments aout the moon of the eath ae enely ous Thus Galileo, in hs Tatato l Sfa (Oe ol , pp 2 1 , whih follows the opinion of Aistotle and of tolemy (p 223, uses this ament against a otaton of the eath: oec whih one ets fal fom high places to the ound suh a stone fom the top ofa towe would not fall towads the ft of that towe fo during the me whih the stone oming elineary towads the ound, spends in the ai, the eath, esaping it, and moving towads the east wud eeive it in a pa fa emoved fom the foot of the towe in a the same
mann in hih a stone that dedfm the mt ofa apid min ship notfall towa its ft but moe toa the st (p 224 The italiied efeene to the ehaviu of stones on ships is again used in the Dialoe (p 1 26, when the tolemai
aguments ae disussed, ut it is no onge aepted oet t seems to e an appopiate me, says Savia (iid, p 180, to take noe of a eain geneosity on the pa of the Copeians towads thei advearies when, th pehaps t muh ieality, they conede as e and oet a nume of expeiments whih thei opponents have neve made Suh fo example is that of the y falling fom the mast ofa ship whie it is in moon Ealie, p 15, it is implied athe than oseed, that the stone wil fal to the ft of the mast even if the ship shoud e in moon whle a ossi experiment is disussed on p 186 Bno (La a le OeIaliane d Giovanni Gene, Bai, 907, p 83 takes it fo granted that the stone arive at the fot of the mast t should e noted that the polem did not eadily lend ielf to n epeimental soluon Epeiments wee made, ut thei esults wee far fom concusive Cf A Armtage, The Deviaon of Faling Bies , Ann ofSi 5, 91, p 342, and A Methyi andMeut Camridge, 168, pp 9 The towe ament can e found in Aristotle, De oelo 29622, and tolemy, ytis i, Copeus disusses it in the same hapte of De Rol ut es to deuse it in the next hapte ts ole in the idde Ages is desied in Clagett, The ce ofMehani in theMileA adison, 959, Chapte 10
7
AGAT METHOD
ommo sese Seaig aradoally u o orrely oe may say ha Gae s an eene ha has eaphsa neds s y meas of suh a eeree ha he asio from a geosa osmolo o he oi of iew of Coeus ad Keler is ahieed 2
Alan Chalmrs, n an ntrsn an wllaru papr Th Gaio Tha yrabn Mss: An mprov Cas Aans Mtho nA chustr an RR Yo s), e Politi and Rheo ofSi Method Dorrcht 1986 pp ), snushs bwn Galos conbuons to a nw scnc, on th on han, an th quson of th sa conions n whch that scnc is vlop an practs, on h othr, amts hat propaana thouh much lss than sust) may hav bn part of hs atmpt to chan h atr, bu mphasis tha t os not ac h for. Th main sourc for Galios conbuon to scnc tsl, says Chalm, s hs T Si' Ths s h work shou hav su to plor Gallos prur. But h Two Si o no a wih h topc was ussn, h ansion o Copcus He Gallo us prurs rathr irn from hos of his latr work ynn Thok, who shars Cham valuaon of h Dialoe wish hat Galo ha writn a sysmac bk on that subjc ( Hto of Ma and mtal Se, ol 6, w York, 191, pp. 7 an 6 Gallo mh hav on bttr to wri a systmac book than hs provav alous) ow for such a book to hav substanc t woul hav to as nral as is Arsolian rva an t woul hav o show how an why Arstotlian concpts n to b rplac at th most lmnta lvl. Arsolan concpts, thouh absact, wr closly rla o common sns Hnc t was ncssa to rplac som common noons by oh am now spakin about what Chalm calls prcpual rlavi p. 7) Two qusons aris: how bi wr th chans? an was propaana rhorc, wr iaonal movs) n o car thm ou? My answr to h lattr quson is hat iscou ampn o brn abou major concpual chans s a noal part of scnc, common sns, an culural chan for h attr cf Chapr 16 an Chaptr 1 7, m vi, opn chan), an tha it i from h iscou carri out ithin a mor or lss stab framwork. Ponaly, am qui prpar o mak t part of raonal. Bu hr st phiophca hs that ops t or call i incohrnt cf. Chaptr 1 0 ofFarel to Re whch scusss som of Hila Pums vws). Usin the tinolo ofthe shoo spak ofGalos ck, tc. An a that nc contans nnts that casonally n such ck o bcom accptabl Th irnc bwn h Si an h Dialoe hrfor, s not bwn nc an solo bu bwn chnca chans in a naow l an basc chans, rastcaly ntrpr. My answr o th t quson is ha prcpual rlatvty, thouh acknowl by many schola an by Arisotl hmsl), was no a common posssson Gallo pons ou ha vn som ofhs fllow scnss sumbl a hs n) an thus ha o b aru for. Ths s not a all surpsin, as my scussion of qualtav culs n Chaptr 5 shows Bsis, s i rally that a avlr on a boat ss h harbour as rcn as f wr rmov by som san forc? I concu tha Gallos ck was ncs for a propr unrstanin of th nw cosmolo, hat t s ck only for philosophs ha s naow conions on concptual chan an tha shoul b tn o aras sll rsct by such conions in Chapr 1 aru tha th mnby problm is on such ara).
8 n n naual neeans Galle als hang sesaos ha se nge Cus e s ha hee ae suh ssans he a Cs hng dsegad h he as he ed h wh he hel f he telescope w he e n theorecal ens wh he ele shuld be eed e a e ue fhe s.
I repeat ad summarze argumet s proposed that refutes opecus by obseao he argumet is iverted i order to discover the atural iterpretaos whch are resposbe for the coadco he oesve terpretaos are repaced by others, propagada ad appeal to dstat ad hghly theoreca parts of commo sese are used to defuse old habits ad to ethroe ew oes he ew atura iterpretaos, whch are aso formuated expicitly as auiary hypotheses, are establshed party by the support they gve to opecus ad party by pausib cosidera os ad h hypotheses erely ew experiece' arises i this way here s as yet o idepedet edece but ths is o rawback it takes me to assemble facts that favour a ew osmolo For what s eeded is a ew dyamcs that expas both celesal ad terresia moos a theory of sod obects, aero yamis ad all these sceces are sl hdde the future 1 Bu he ask nw wened, for Galeos assumpos hs h hypotheses icluded are sucetly clear ad smpe to prescribe he direco of future research et it be oted icdetay that Galeo's procedure drascay educes the cotet of dyacs Aristotelia dyacs was a geera ao's crcar law s not t t dnamcs t ts ntr t pccls c sl cr n Copcs, no pl's pss n fact, t s rtd b bot Sll alo rards t an ssnal nrdnt of t Copcan nt ofw and s to �o bs, sc as comts, wos moon qt obosl s not ccla, om ntlanta spac n sallo talkd abot comts and nttd tm as sons, sma to ranbows n od to potct th Cocan sstm from possb falscaons' P Rdond, Galileo Heti Pncton, 1987 pp 145 3 1
77
78
AGAST METHOD
theo of change comprsng ocomoon, qaltave change, generaon and corrpon, and it cod aso be apped to menta processes Galileo's dynacs and its sccessors deal with ln only, and here again jst wth the lomoon of aer Other knds of moon are pshed asde with the prosso note (de to Demrtos) that locomoon will eventally be capable of explanng al moon hs a comprehensve empircal theo s replaced by a narrow theo pls a metaphysics of moon/ jst as an emprcal' experence is replaced by an experence that contains speclave elements Cunendun, however, s now seen to play an important role both vsvs theories and vvs facts It cleary ads the advancement of science hs concldes the consideraons begn n Chapter 6 I now t to another part of Galeo's propaganda campagn, dealng not with natral interetaons bt with the ss re of or obseaona statements Replyng to an interloctor who expressed his astonshment at the . Th socalld sciic rvouo ld to toudi diovris ad cosidrably xtdd our owld ofphysics, physiolo, ad asooy This was achivd by pushi asid ad rardi as ilvat, and o non-tt thos facs which had supd th oldr philophy Thus h vdc for witchcraf, doic ssssio, th xstc of th dvl, tc, w disrardd tt wh th supios' i oc cod Th rsul was tha owards th clos of th Middl As scic was forcd away fro hua psychoo, so that v th rat davour of Erasus ad his frid Vivs, as th bst rprstavs of huais, did ot suc o bri abou a rapproach, ad psychopathoo had to ail cturis bhid th dvopta d of ra dici ad su. As a attr o ac th divorct of dica ic fro psychopathoo w so di tha th lattr was aways otally rlatd to th doai of thoo ad cclsiasc ad civil law wo lds which auraly bca fuh ad fuhr rovd fro dici . G. Zilboor, MD, The Medil Man and the With, Baor, 1 935 pp. 3 ad 70. Asooy advacd, bu th owld of th hua id sippd bac io a arir ad or priiv sta Aothr xapl is asoo h ary stas of h hua id,' writs A Co (Cou Philoshie Posite, Vo. , pp 7380 d. Lit, Paris, 1836) ths coci is bw asooy ad bioo wr studid fro a v dirt poi of vw, but at et thy wr studid ad ot out of sih, as is h coo tdcy i our o , udr th rsci iluc of a asc ad icop posivis Bath th chirical bif of th old philosophy i th physiooical iluc of h stars, thr ay a so, houh cofusd rcoio of th ruth tha th facs of if wr i so way dpd o h oar ys Lik all priiiv ispiraos of a's itlic this fli dd rccao by siv ic, but ot dsuco thou uhappiy i ic, a i ics, it is oft hard to roraiz wthout so brif priod of ovhrow A third ara i athacs Arstot had dvopd a hihly sophiscatd tho of h couu that ovrca th diculs raisd by Zo ad acipatd quatu thorcal idas o oo (s fooo 5 ad txt ofChaptr 5) Mos physicists rtud to th ida ofa couu cosis ofidivisibl s if hy cosidr uch rcodi attrs, tha is
79
EGHT
smal number of Copeicans Salvia who act[s] the part of Copeicus' gives the following eplanaon: You wonder that here are so few followers of the Pythagorean opinion [that the earth moves] while am astonished that there have been any up to this day who have embraced and followed it Nor can ever sufcienty admire the outstanding acumen of those who have taken hold of this opinion and accepted it as true: hey have through sheer force of intelect done such violence to their own senses as to prefer what reason told them over hat which sensible eperience plainly showed hem to be the conary For the arguments against the whirling [he rotaon] of the earth we have already eamined [the dynamica arguments discussed above] are very pausible as we have seen and he fact that the Ptolemaics and he Aristotelians and all their disciples took them to be conclusive is indeed a strong argument of their eecveness But the eperiences which overtly conadict he annual movement [he movement of the earth aound the sun] ae indeed so much greater in heir appaent force that epeat here is no limit to my astonishment when reect that Aristachus and Copecus were able to make reason so conque sense that in deance ofthe latter the fome became misess of thei belief' A little later Galileo notes that hey e Copeicans] wee condent of what their eason told them!' And he concludes his brief account of he origins of Copeicanism by saying that with reason as his guide he [Copeicus] resolutely connued to am what sensible eperience seemed to conadict' cannot get ove my amazement' Galileo repeats that he was constanty willing to persist in saying that Venus might go aound the sun and might be moe han si mes as far from us at one me as at anothe and sll look always equal when it should have appeared forty mes arger' The eperiences which overtly contradict the annual movement' and which are much greater in heir appaent force' than even the dynamica arguments above consist in he fact that Mars when it is close to us would have to look sity mes as large as when it is most distan Yet no such difference is to be seen Rather when it is in opposion o the sun and close o us it shows itself only fou o ve
3 ialoe p pp 1 3 1 ad 256 4 ib p 328 At te imes Galile speas m mre belligeety ad
gmaialy ad apparenty tut ay aareess te iulie meted ere i preparatry ntes r te ete t Grad Des Crisia, Oe V pp
367 5 bi p 335 6. ibi , p 339
80
AGAIT MEOD
mes as large as whe, at cojuco it becomes hidde behid the rays o the su7 Aother ad greater dculty is made or us by Veus which, i it circulates aroud the su, as Copeicus says would ow be beyod it ad ow o this sde o it, recedig rom ad approachig towards us by as much as the dameter o the circle it describes. he, whe t s beeath the su ad vey close to us, its dsc ought to appea to us a little less tha orty mes as large as whe it is beyod the su ad ear cojuco. Yet the dierece is almost mpecepble. I a earlie essay, he Assae Galleo expessed hmself sll more blutly Replyg to a adversay who had rased the ssue of Copecasm he emaks that neihe h n he asn n Cis uld ea ue [Pl] iasmuch as a most importat argumet take rom the movemet of Mas ad Veus stood always the way. (hs argumet is meoed agai i the Diale ad has just bee quoted.) He cocludes that the two systems (the Copeca ad the Ptolemaic) are surely alse 8 e see that Galileos view of the origi oCopecasm dies markedly from the more familar hstorical accouts He ether pots to n fas whch oer inducve su to the idea of the movg eath, o does he meo ay obseaos that would ue the geoceic point of view but be accouted for by Copecaism O the coay, he emphaszes that ot oly Ptolemy, but Copecus as well, is refuted by the facts,9 ad he paises Aristarchus ad Copeicus o ot havig give up the face of 7. ibid., p 33. 8 eA� quted frm The Cont on the Comet of p. cit p 85. . This refe t the ped befre the ed fthe 6th ceu; cf. ere. de . Pce, Ca-Cpeicus A Crical Re-Esma fthe Mathemacal Paea The fPtemy, Cpeicus ad eper, i M. Cagett(ed.), Ctilbl in heHto of Se Madis 5 pp 7-2 8 Price deas y th the kinati ad the til dicules fthe ew views. (A csidera fthe dyamical dicules wuld rher segthe his case) e pis ut that uder the best cdis a gestac r helisc system usig eccetric circles (r their equivale) th cea epicles ca accut fr al agular ms fthe plaes t a accura better tha 6 excepg y the special he eeded t accut fr . Mercu ad excepg als the plaet Mars which shw devias up t 30 frm a the [his is certaily better tha the accura fl 0 which Cpeicus himselfsted as a sasfact gal fr his the which was dicult t tet, especialy i view f the fact hat refrac (almst I the hriz) was t tae it accut at he me fCpeicus, ad that he bseaa basis f he predics was less ha sasfact Carl chumacher (Untuhun b die ptolhe Theo·e d unt ne Mster, 7) has fud that he predics cceig Mercu ad eus made by Ptlemy dier a ms a amut f 30 frm hse f Cpeicus he devias fud beee me predics ad hse f Ptlemy (ad Cpeicus),
EIG
81
such tremendous dicules He paises them for having poceeded unendue This however is not yet the whole stoy For while it might be conceded that Copeicus acted simply on faith it may also be said that Galieo found himself in an eney different posion. Galieo after all invented a new dyamics. And he invented the telescope The new dyamcs one might want to point out emoves the inconsistency between the moon of the earth and the condions aecng ouseves and those in the air above us. 0 Ad the telescope removes the even moe glaring clash between the changes in the appaent brighess ofMars and Venus as pedicted on the basis of the Copeican scheme and as seen with the naked eye This incidentaly is also Galileos own vew He admits that wee it not for the estence of a superior and bette sense than natura and common sense to join foces with eason' he would have been much more recalcitrant towards the Copeican system Y The superior and better sense' is of course the ele and one is inclned to remar that the appaently counterinducve pocedure was a matter of fact inducon (or conjectue plus refutaon plus new conjectue) bu ne based n be ee containng not only better natural ntepretaons but aso a better sensoy core than was available to Galieo's Aristoteian predecessors This matter must now be examined in some detail The telescope is a superior and better sense that gives new and more reliable evdence fo judging astronomcal mattes How is this hypothesis examned and what aguments are presented in ts favou? n the Seus unus 3 the publicaon which contains his st c e case Mercu may be as arge as 7 are due many t wrg cnsants ad a cnds, ncudng an ncrect aue e cnstant precessi e esay the Pemac scheme c N.R. ansn, , N 5 960 pp 158 0. Pemy, Syns , 7 Daloe p c, p 328 2. hs e c. Ludic Geymnat, Gall Gale trans. Sman Drae Ne Y 1965 ( aian edn 957 p 184. r e s Gaie's en and use e teescpe c. R.S. Westa, Scece ad Patrnage, Is V. 76 985 . Accrdg Westa Gae sa the teescpe mre as an nsument anage than as a sume asnmy (p 26) ad had t be pushed nt sme asnca appcans by hs pup (and sauch Cpecan Caste. Gaes eescpes ee bee a the ccuatin a e time ad ere muc n demad u h s satised the demands ptena patrns. eper, wh cmpained abut te ay eescpes (c. ne chapte ne 2 and e ad wh wud hae ed t pssess a beer nsumnt, had t wat 3 . he Sea o Gaeo Gal tras. E. S Cas, Lndn, 1880 essued by Dawsns Pa Ma, 960 p. I 0
8
A G A I N S T M E T H O
telescopic obseaons, ad whch was also the rst mportat conibuon to hs fame, Galileo writes that he succeeded i bulding the telescope through a deep study of the theo of refracon Ths suggests that he had heel e for preferrng the results of telescopc obseaons to obseaons wth the naked eye. But the parcular reason he gves his isight ito the theo of refracon - is ot "e and s not su ether The reason s not correct, for there est serious doubts as to Galileos knowledge of those pas of contempora physical opcs which were relevant for the understandig of telescopc phenomea In a letter to Gulano de Medici of 1 October 161 0 H more than hafa year aer publcaon of the Se unus he asks for a copy of Keplers of 1604 poinng out that he had not yet been able to obtan t i tayJean Tarde who i 1614 asked Galileo about the consucon oftelescopes of preassigned magnicaon, repos in hs da that Galeo regarded the matter as a dicut one that he had foud Kepler's of 1 6 1 1 so obscure that perhaps its own author had not understd it' P In a etter to Lice written two years before hs death Gaileo remarks that as far as he was conceed the nature of lght was sll i darkness 8 Even if we consder such utterances with the care that is needed i the case of a whimsical author lke Gaileo, we must yet adt that his knowledge of opcs was iferior by far to that of Kepler 9 This s also the 14 Galilo, Oe Vol X p. 441 . I . Ad eon Paralpoma qubuAnom Pa Oa Trur Franfu, 1 604, o quod fromJohann Kl Gammele Wke Vol I, Munich, 1939, d Franz Hammr. This parcular wor wil rfrd o as h opcs of 1 604 1 was th only usful opcs ha isd a th m. Th rason for Galio's curiosi was mos ily h many rfncs to his wo in Kpr's rpy o h S Nunu For h hiso of this ply as w as a ansaon cf. K Coa wh Gal Sea trans. E Rosn, Nw Yo, 196 Th many rfrncs o arlir wor conaind in th Coaon wr inttd y som ofGalilo's nmis as a sign ha his mas had o from s fac' (G. Fuggr o Kpl, 28 May 1610 Galilo, Oe Vo X, p. 361 and ha (Kpl had wl plucd him', Mastlin o Kpr 7 Augus (Galilo, Oe Vo X, p 428. Galilo mus hav civd Kplrs Coaon for 7 May Oe X, p 349 ad h acnowldgs cip of th prind Coaon in a ttr to Kpl of 19 Aus Oere X p 421 16. De Augsug, 61 1 , Wke Vol IV, Munic, 1941 This wor was writtn aftr Galio's discoris. Kplr's fnc to thm in h prfac as n anslad y E S Calos, op cit, pp 37, 79 Th polm frd to y Tard is atd in Kplr's De 1 7. Gymona, op cit, p 37 1 8 ttr o ic of23 Jun 1 6. Oe V, p 208 19 Kplr, h mos nowldgal and mos oval of Galilo's cont rais, gis a clar accou of h asons why, dspi his supior nowldg of
EGHT
83
concluson of Professor E Hoppe, who sums up the stuaon as follows: aileos asseron that having heard of the Dutch telescope he reconsucted the apparatus by mathemacal calculaon must of course be understd with a grain of salt for his wngs we do not nd any calculaons and the rert, by letter, which he gves of his t eort says that no better lenses had been available six days ater we nd him on the way to Venice with a better piece to hand it a g o the Doge Leonardi Dona This ds not ook like calculaon it rather lks like al and eor The calcuaon may well have been of a dierent kind, and here it succeeded, for on 25 August 609 his sala was increased by a factor of three. 20
Tral and error ths means that n the case of the telescope t was ece and not mathemacs that led Galeo to a serene fath n the reabty of hs devce2 Ths second hypothess on the orgn of the teescope s supported by Galeo's tesmony, n whch he wrtes that he had tested the teescope a hundred thousand mes on a hndred thousand stas and other obects' 22 Such tests produced geat and suprsng successes The contempora lterature letters, books, gossp colmns teses to the eaordna mpesson whch the telescope made as a means of mpovng
al vsn. pcal mate he efaed fm atempg csc e dece Yu hwee e addesses Galle desee my pase Putg asde all msgigs yu ted decy sual expemeta Coaon p. ct p 18) t emas add a Gale due hs lack f kwledge ptcs had msgigs t ecme Galle was ttaly ga f e scece fpcs ad s t t bld assume hat hs was a m happy accdet b f hm ad f humaty at lage Rch Scc Chan ed Cmbe d 1963, p 550 20 D Gchh Otk epzg 1926, p. 32 Hppes judgemet cceg he e f e telescpe s shaed by Wlf e ad thes Huyghes pts ut ha supehuma telgece wuld hae bee eeded et the elescpe he bass e aailable physcs ad geme Ae all says e we sll d t udesd the wkigs f the telepe Dpa H O Poma dg Ba 1903, 163, paaphased ae A.G. se Gchht athak Vl V Gtge 1800, p. 60) 2 Geymat p c p 39 22 ete t Cas 24 May 1616, Or X p. 357 ete t P. D 1 2 May 11, Or X p 06 ca t be dubted that I e a ped f tw yeas w ae tested my smet athe dzes f my smets) hudeds ad husads f bjects ea ad fa age ad small bgh ad dak; hece d t see w t ca ee the mid f aye that hae smple-mdedly emaed deceed y bseas The hudeds ad thusads f exmets emd e f ke ad ae mst lkely equally spuus. Cf. fe 9 f Chape 9
84
AGAINS MEHOD
Julius aesar Lagalla, Professor ofPhilosophy in Rome, escibes a meeng of 6 Apil 1 6 1 1 at hich Galileo emonsate his eice We ee on top of the Janiculum, nea the city gate name afte the Holy Ghost hee once is sai to hae stoo the ila of the poet Maal no the propety of the Most Reeren Malasa By means of this instument, e sa the palace of the most illus tious Duke Altemps on the Tuscan Hills so isnctly that e reaiy counte ts each an eery no een the smalest; an the istance s sixteen Italian mies. From the same place e ea the letters on the galle, hich Sixtus erecte in the Lateran for the benecons, so clealy, that e snguishe een the peios cae beteen the lettes, at a istance of at east to miles' 23 Other epos conm ths an simlar eents Galileo hmself points to the numbe an importance of the benets hch the insument may be expecte to confe, hen use by lan or sea' 24 23 galla D phom n o lun el a a D Gal Gall nunc m susc physca dpuao (Vc, I 612), p. 8; qod from E. Ro Namn oh Tlc, Nw York, I 47, p 4 h rglar rport of th ch of Urbo o vt ad gop Rom ota th folowg o of th vt Galo all th mathmaa, arrv hr from Flor bfor Eatr Formrl a Profor at Pada, h a prt rtad b th Gra Dk of a a a ala of I , . H ha obd th moo of th ta wth th , whh h vt or rathr mprovd. Aga th opo o al at phlooph, h dar tha thr ar for mor ta or plat, whh ar alt of ptr ad whch h al th Mda bod, a wll a two compao of Sat H ha hr dd th opo of h wth Fathr Clav th t ha vg, at Mogor Mavaa' tat o th St Para gat, a hgh ad op pla, a baqt wa gv for hm b Frk C, th marq of Mocl a phw of Cardal C, who wa aompad b h kma, Pal Moaldo I th gathg thr wr allo; a Flmg am ; Po, of Card C' r, [a la, Profor at th Uvt hr; th rk, who Cardal Goga' mathmata; Par, Profor at Sa, a a ma a ght othr Som of thm wt ot xprl to prfo th obao, ad v thogh th tad l o o'lk th mog, th ll ot rah a agrmt thr vw' (qot from Ro, op t, p 3 1) 24 Sal s op t., p . Accordg to Brl (D T ore, Hag, 1 6 p 4), Pr Mor mmdatl ralzd th mlta val of th tlop ad orrd that t vo whh Brll atbt to ahaa a b kpt a rt. h th tlop m to hav ommd a a rt wapo a wa t to aoomal ol latr hr ar ma apao of th tlop to b fod th ltratr, bt th mo blog to th doma of atral mag a ar d aordgl. A amp Agrppa vo hm, who, h bk o t phlooph (wr 1 0, Book I, chaptr 23), wrt t go ov x ll mraa or, t pcla q b q vr potrt qaq volrt a logma dtaa' So ma th to of o ag com to b th pro ar of aothr', H Mor, L oCol Aa Nehem Vo. p. 166
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85
T eesal success of he elescope was, heefoe assued Is applicaon o he sa oweve was an eney dieen ae
9 Nr e nal epeience w e elesepr su reasns. e el bseans f e s are ndn nenae nrad and n n w wa eene n see w s unad es And e n e a uld ave elped sarae eles lusnsfrm vedal penmena was rued smple ess
T stat with thee is the pblem f telescpic visin This pblem s ieent f celesal an teestial bects; an it was as ug be ieent in the w cases t was thught t be eent because f the cntempa iea that celesal bects an teesial bects ae fme fm if feent mateials an bey iffeent laws This iea enails that the esult f an inteacn f light (which cnnects bth mans an has special ppees) with teestial bects cannt withut furthe iscussin be etene t the sy T this physical iea ne ae enely in accance with the Aisttelian the f knwege (an als wth pesent vews abut the mater), the iea that the senses are aquaned with the cse appeaance f teesia bects an are theefre able t peceve them isnctly even if the teescpic image shul be vastly distte r isgured by clured finges. The stas ae nt knwn frm cse by 2 ence we cannt in thei case use ur m fr sepaang the cnibuns f the telescpe an thse which cme frm the bect Thi i hardly vr ralizd by tho who argue (with Ktner op cit p 133) that one doe ot ee how a telecope ca b good ad uefl o the earh ad ye deceive i the ky' Ktnr comme i direcd agait Horky See beow, text to footnote 16 of the pret chaper 2. Tha he e ar acaied wih ou eveday uoudig, bu ar liabe o giv mieadig epo abou objct ouide hi domai, i poved at oce by h ernce ohe moon. O th earh age bu ditan obect i famiiar uound ig, uch a mouain, ae n a big lage, ad fa away The appearanc of he m, howve, giv u a iey fae idea of i diance ad it iz.
86
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tself3 Moeove, all the famla cues (such as backgound ovelap knowledge of neaby sze etc) whch constute and ad ou vson on the suface of the eah ae absent when we ae dealng wth the sky so that new and susng phenomena ae bound to occu 4 Ony a new theoy of vson contanng both hypotheses conceng the behavou of lght wthn the telescope and hypotheses conceng the eacon of the eye unde excepona ccumstances coud have bdged the guf between the heavens and the eah that was and sl s such an obvous fact of physcs and of asonomca obseaon. 5 We shall soon have occason to comment on the theoes that wee avalable at the e and we shall see that they wee unt fo the task and wee efuted by pan and obvous facts Fo the moment I want to stay wth the obseaons themselves and I want to comment on the conadcons and dcules whch ase when one es to take the celesal esults of the teescope at the face vaue as ndcang stabe objecve popees of the thngs seen Some ofthese dcules aleady announce themselves n a epot of the contempoay A whch ends wth the emak that even thouh they (the pacpants n the gatheng descbed) went out expessly o pefom ths obseaon (of"fou moe stas o planets whch ae satetes of Jupte . as we as of two companons of Satu) and even though they stayed un one n the mong they sl dd not each an ageement n the vews I is not t dicl o sepaate he ette of a familiar alphabet from a backgond of nfamiliar ines, even if hey shold happen to have been witen ith an amos illegible hand No sch separation is possibe ith lette hich belong to an nfamiiar aphabet. he pas of sch lette do not hang together to fo disnct pattes hich stand ot from the backgond ofgenera (opc noise (in he manner described by oka, Pcho Bu 9 922 pp 55 l , paly eprinted in MD eon (ed, Exm n ual Pon London, 966 cf also the ace by Gotcaldt in e same vome 4. o the impoance of ces sch as diaphagms, cossed ies, backgond, ec in e ocaizaon and sape of the eescope image and the sange siaons arising hen no ces are pesent cf Chapter of Ronchi Ot op cit., esciy pp l 4 89 9 ec Cf. aso RL Gego, Eye and Bran Ne ok, 966 m and p 99 (on e atokinetic phenomenon P ilpaick (ed, Exloraon n anonal Pcholo Ne ok 96 contains ampe material on ha happens in e absence of famiia ces 5. is fo is eason a the deep sdy ofe heo of efracon hich Gaileo pretended to have caried ot (text to fooote of Chape 8 od have been ite fo esablishing he sefness of the telescope; cf also foe 6 of th presen chapter. 6. Deails in Chapter 8, fote 23.
his is ho he ring of Sa as seen at he me Cf also R.L Gego, e Ine Eye p. 9.
88
AGANS MED
Anoter meeng tat became notorious all over Europe makes te situaon even clearer About a year earlier, on 24 and 25 April 1 610, Galileo ad taken is telescope to te ouse ofis opponen Magi, in Bologna to demonstrate it to twenty-four professors ofall facules Horky, Keplers overy-excited pupi, wrote on tis occasion;8 I never slept on te 24t or 25t April, da or nigt, but I tested te nstrument of Galileo's in a tousand ways, bot on tings ere below and on tose above. Below wor wonul; in te eavens it deceives one, as some ed stars [Spica Virginis, for example, is menoned, as well as a teresal ame] are seen double. 0 I ave as wiesses most excellent men and nobe doctors . . and all ave admtted te insument to deceive . . . Tis sienced Galieo and on te 26t e sadly le quite early in te mong . . not even tankng Magini for is spendid mea. . . Magini wrote to Kepler on 26 May He as acieved notng, for more tan twenty leaed men were present yet nobody as seen te new planets disnctly (nemo perfecte vidit); e wi ardly be abe to keep tem A few monts later (n a etter signed by Runi) e repeats Only some wit sarp vision were convinced to some extent.' 1 2 After tese and oter negave repots ad reaced Kepler from al sides, ike a paper avalance, e asked Galeo for wesses 3 I do not want to ide it from you tat quite a few Italians ave sent etters to Prague asserng tat tey coud not see tose stas [te moons ofupter] wt your own telescope. I ask mysef ow i can be tat so many deny te penomenon, includng tose wo use a teescope. Now, if consider wat occasionally appens to me, ten I do not at al regard it as impossible tat a snge person may see wat tousands are unabe to see . . 4 Yet I ree tat te
8. Galilo, Oe Vo. X, p 342 (my talics, rfring to th drnc commntd pon abov, btn cs and tsal obsatons 9. h hndrds' and thosands' of obsaons, als, tc, hch nd hr agan ar hadly mor than a htoric orish (cosndng to or I hav told yo a thond ms' hy cannot b sd to infr a lif ofincssant obsaon. I 0. Hr agan hav a c h al cls a mssing Cf. Ronchi, Ot op. ct., as gards th apparanc ofams, smal lghts, tc I I. tt of26 May, Oe Ill. 12. bd., p 196. 1 3. ttr of9 Agst 1610 otd fom Caspack, Johann K n Sen B Vo. I, Mnich, 1930, p. 349 14. Kpl, ho sd fom Poyopia (nstad of a singl small obct at a grat distanc, to or thr ar sn by thos ho s fom this dfct. Hnc, instad of a singl mn tn o mo psnt thmsvs to m', Coaon op. cit., fooot 94; cf. so th maind of th fooot fo fh otaons, and ho as fama ith Platt's anatomica invsgatons (cf S.L. Poyak, The Rena Chcago, 1942, pp. 134 fo dtas and itrar, as l aa of th nd for a physo tsm otronom obsaons.
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conrmaon b others shoul take so long in tuing up herefore beseech ou Gaileo gve me wesses as soon as possble . Galeo in his repl of 1 9 Aust refers to hmself to the Duke ofToscana an Giuliano e Meici as weU as man others in Psa Florence Bologna Vence an Paua who however reman slent an hesitate Most of them are enrel unable to isngush Jupter or Mars or even the Moon as a planet . . '15 not a ve reassurng state of aars to sa the least oa we unerstan a ttle better wh the rect appea to telescopc vson was boun to lea to sappoent especial in the nal stages he ma reason one area foreseen b Arstote was that the senses apple uner abnorma conons are abe to gve an abnorma response. Some of the oler historans ha an g of the situaon but the speak negate the to elan the absce of sasfacto obseaona reports the pe of what s seen the telescope. 6 The are unaware of the possbt that the obseers mght have been sturbe b stng pste usns also he extent of such lusions was not reaze un uite recent ma as the result of the work of onch an his school 7 Here szeabe varaons are reporte the pacement of the telescopc image an correspong the obsee macatn Some obseers put the mage rght nse the teescope makg it change 15 Csrc ct 352 1 6 hus ml hl Ga und sen Kampr de Knhe Lehre, V , Hmur, 19, 288, rtes N dut the unent resul ere due t the c f nn n teescc sen nd the resced eld f sn f the en teee s el s t the sence f ny sslty fr chnn the dtnce f the ses n rder t me them the cules f the eyes f the leed me A smr udement, thuh mre drmcy exressed s fund n Aur Kesers Se 3 6 Cf Rnch Ot ct Htore Lume Ps 156 Sto Cannohe Vcn Cty 164; Ct d Fonmt At e , Rme, 1964 cf Cntres summ n Ar dhore s ecemr 1966, 333 uld e t cnlede t ths e tht Prfessr Rnchs nvesns hve retly nuenced thnn n enc me Fr ref strcl ccunt f lles r cf Rnchs cle n AC Crme (ed), St Chane, Lndn 1963, 542 H lttle ths eld s exlred ecmes cler frm S lnsys Ot on, Lndn 164 ns s hyscst wh n hs mcrc reserch (n csts nd metls) s dscted y ne c lun er nther He tes hs ued ur nterest t the nlyss f ther suns, th the umte unexeced dve tht cl llusns cn nd d y ve re n ecn mny dy enc sens hs ed me be he lu nd s result met mre llusn thn hd brned fr he llus fdrect vsn hse rle n enc reserch s slly n redvered were wl nn t medevl re n cs h eed them n scl che f her texs rever they eed lenmes s po henmen s
0
AANS MHO
its atea psin wth the latea psin f the eye, exactly as wud be the case with an afte image, a eex inside the telescpe an excellent pf that ne must be dealing with ilusin 8 Othes pace the image in a manne that leads t n magnican at a, athugh a linea magnican f ve thity may have been pmised 9 Even a dubling f images can be explained as the esult f a lack f ppe fcusing 20 Adding the many impefecns f the cntempay telescpes t these psychlgical difcues, 2 ne can wel undestand the scacity f sasfacty epts and ne is athe astnished at the speed with whch the eality f the new phenmena was accepted, and as was the custm pubicly acwledged.22 This develpment becmes even me puling esults f msrehensn fr n me s merely the ence f n ect ude ts lce' s e red n hn Pechm (cf. vd nder he Peecv Cmmuns fhn Pechm' Arh Intton d hstore s 1 965 51 s e s the lst rrh f Prsn l 9 f Pechms Ppe Commun hch s t e fund n John Pehm nd the Se oOt nder (ed.) Mdsn 90 11) 18. Rnch Ot ct. 1 89. hs my exln the freueny uttered desre t l ns the teesce N such ems rse n the ce f tt jecs hse mes re relry lced n the ne f the ect' (d 1 82) 9 Fr the mcn f lle's telesce cf The Se s ct cf ls A Snnefeld e Oschen ten der Hmmesferhre vn lle lle' Runhu Vl 1 962 20 he ld le tht the se sn nd nement ccrdn t hch thn s seen deends n the se f the nle thruh hch t s seen' (R rsseteste De uted frm Crme Rob Gsste Ord 1953 120) hch s c t ucld s most s l s rememe my dsnent hen hvn ult reectrth n ed lner mcn f ut l fund tht the mn ny ut ve mes enlred nd stuted ute clse t the u (1 93) 20 he me remns sh nd unched ver cnsdele ntel the c f fusn my sh tself n duln hever 2 1 he t usle telesce hch Keler receved frm lectr st f Kln (h n u hd receved t frm lle) nd n hch he ed hs Nt ot se qrJ stebus Fn 161 1 shed the st s sq nd ntensey ured (G We 461) st vn Kln hmself unle t see nyhn th the tee nd he ed Clvus t send hm etter nsment ro Pont Unt Gron 530 f l 82r). Fncesc Fntn h frm 1 643 nrds seed the hes f Venus ntes n unevenness f the und (d nfe muntns) cf R. Wlf Ghihte Astnome unch 18 398. Fr the dsyncrses fcntemr elescs nd descrve lteture cf. s nner Dhe und Niendhe Astnomhe nstmte b Jhrhun Munc 1956 262 Refer ls t the uthr ctue n the secnd f the . 22. Fther Clv us (etter f ecemer 1610 Oe X, . 485) the snmer f the erfu esu Ceum Rmnum rses le the t t hve seed the mns futer nd he recnes ther rel Mn renere nd the sn fled sut s cler ht n dn s they dd nt reed
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when we consder that many reports of even the best obseers were ether planlye and capable of ben shown as such at the me, or else secnr Thus Galleo eports unevenness, vast protuberances, deep chasms, and snuoses 2 at the nner bounda of the lhted part ofthe moon whe the oute boundary appea[s] not uneven, rued, and reua, but perfectly round ad crcular, as shaly dened as f maked out wth a pa of compasses, and wthout the ndentaons of any potuberances ad caves. 24 The moon, then, seemed to be ccordig to the methods prescrbed by their ow phiosophy or else they were ve x i the ivesgo of the mer Professor McMlli op ci foe 32) mkes ch of this qick cceptce of Glileo's telescopic obseons he reglr peiods obseed for the stelites d for the phses of Ves strongy idiced th they were ot efcts ofphysioo or opcs here ws srely o eed for "li scieces here ws no eed for i sciences ies McMli whie sig himsef the exmined li hythesis th soomic evets re dis gished from physioogcl evens by their regrty d their iebjecvity Bt his hpothesis is , s is show by the moon ilsion the phenomenon of ft morg the ribow hloes by the mny microscopic ilsios which re so vividly descrbed by olsky by the phenomen of chcr which sve in or extbks of psycholo nd psychi thogh nder diere me nd by nmeros other pheomen he hythesis ws lso own o b a by Pechm Wieo d other mediev schol who hd stdied the reglr d intebecve llsions creted by lenses miro d other opcl conivnces I nqity the flseh of McMlis hythesis ws ommo. Gileo expliciy disses d repdies it i his book on comes hs new theo of visio ws needed ot jst to the Glilen obseons bt lso o provide ams for their sonomic reli f coe Cvis my not hve bee wre ofthis need his is hrdly srsing er l some of his sophiscted 20thcet sccesso sch s Professor McMllin re ot wre ofit either n ddion we mst poit ot tht the rer rs ofthe ms ofJpier were not s well kow s McMllin isintes For his whole ife Gileo ied to detee these pers i order to d beer wys of deteinig longtde t se e did not scceed Lter on the sme problem reted in dieret fo when the empt to detene the veli oflight th more th one moon ed o conlcng resls his ws fod by Cssini shorly er Rmers diove cf B Cohen Rmer nd the t deteinon of the veli oflight 1676) ss Vol 3 1 19) pp 347 For the ttde ofCvis nd the scienss of he Colegm Romm cf the ve iteresg book G n Ch by Psqle M dEli SJ Cmbrdge Mss 1960 he erly obseos ofthe sonome ofthe Colegm e cotied in their ow Nncis Sideres' O, / pp 2918 23 hSas op cit p 8 24 op cit p 24 cf the drg o pge 97 which is tke from Gileo's pbico Kepe i his O of 1604 ites o the bsis of obseons th the ided eye) t seemed s thogh something ws mssing in the circr of the oost peiphe (Wk Vol I p 219) He ets to this sseon in his oaon op cit pp 28) crciig Gieo's teescopic ress by wht he hsefhd see th the nided eye: Yo sk why the m's oteost circle does ot s o ppe ireg do not kow ho creflly yo hve thoght bot this sbe ct o hethe yo qe s is more likely is bsed o popr impression Fo i
AGAST MTHOD
full ofmountans at the iside ut pefetly smooth a the perphey, and ths despte the fat that the pei hey canged as the esult ofthe sgh liaon of the unar ody. The moon and some of the planets, suh as fo exampe upiter wee enlarged whe the apparent diameter of the ed stars dereased: the forme were rought neare whereas the atte were pushed away The stars, wites Galeo, ed as we as era, when seen wth the teesope y no· means appear to e reased magntude n the same propoon as other oets, and the Moon itsef nrease ofsze ut n the ase of the stars suh nrease appeas muh less, so that you may onsder tha a teesope, whih (fo the sake of usaon) s poweful enough to magn other oets a hundred mes, wl sarely render the stas magned four or ve mes. 2
:
m [the of 16 I stte tht there ws sure some imrfecon n tht outeost crcle during full mn. Stud the mtter nd once gin ell us how it ls to ou . . Here the results of ned ee oseon re quoted ginst Glleos teeopc re nd th rfectl gd reson s we shll see eow e reder who rememe Kepler's lopi (cf fote 14 to ths chpter) m wonder how he could ust his senses to such n etent The repl is ontined n the follong quoton (Wee, I, pp 194) When eclpses of the mn egin I, who suer from this defect ecome wre of the eclipse efore ll the other osee. ng efore e clipse sts I even detect the drecon from whch the shdow s pprchig while the others who hve ve cute vision re still n dout . . . . e foremenoned wvine of the mn [cf the previous quoton stops for me when the mn pproches the shdow nd the songest p of the sun's rs is cut o ' ileo hs two eplnons for the condcto ppernce of the mn he ne nvolves lunr osphere op cit pp 26) he other eplnon (id pp 25) whch involvs the tngnl ppernce of series of mountins ling hind ech other is no rell ve pusle s the dstuon of mountins ner the vsile sde of the unr gloe ds not show the ngement tht would e needed (this is now even etter estlished the pulictin of the Russin mn photogrph of 7 Octoer 1959; f Zdenek Kop An Inuon o he Su o he n oh Hond 1966 p 242) 25 he lrons were noced lleo C. Rghin ew Lght on lileo's Lunr Oseons' in ML RghinBonelli nd R She (eds) Reon a ym n he S Rluon ew Yor 1975 59 Thus t ws not sloppiness of oseons ut the phenomen themseves tht msided lle In two lette to the joul Se 2 M nd 10 Octoer 1980) H. Whiter ccused me of giving msleding ccount oflieo's oseon sl cled him r oseer when hs lunr oseons were in fct rer impressve. e ccuon is refuted the tet to fotes 29 nd 30 nd fote of the present chpter ter oviousl thought m quotons from Wolf (tet to fote 28) relected m own opinon. He so in out tht the oppeltes of lileo's oseons re much etter from me int o vew thn the wdcu which ccompnied the Nunus hs s e ut ds no nvlidte m descripon of the dete whh w ed on the pulshed ccount 26 s op. ct. p. 38 f. lso the more detiled ccount n op cit. pp. 336 he telesco t were removes the hevens fom us' wtes A Chwlin
T strngst fturs of t rly story of t tlscop mrg
owvr wn w tk closr look t Gllos pres ofhe moon t nds only brf look t Gllos drwngs nd potogrp of smlr pss to convnc t rdr tt 'non of t fturs rcordd cn b sfly dnd wt ny known mrkngs of t lunr ndscp Lookng t suc vdnc t s vry sy to tnk tt 'Gllo ws not grt sonomcl obsr or ls tt t ctmnt of so mny tlscopc dscovrs md b � m t tt m d tmporrly blurrd s skll or crcl sns 8 Now ts ssron my w b tu (toug I rtr doubt t vw of t qut ordn obsonl skll wc Gllo bts on otr occsons. But t s poor contnt nd n hs edon of Kleome, De Krebng r Ge (Lepzg 19 p ) ommenng on the derese of the pprent dmeter of all strs with the sole exepon of the sun nd the mn Lter on the derent mgncon of pnets (or comets) nd ed strs ws used s mens ofdsngushng them From experene now' writes Herschel n the pper reporng hs rst oseon of rnus (Phl Trans, 1 1 781, pp 49 the pnet s here dened s comet), tht the dmete of the ed st re not proporonl mgned with hgher powe s the plnets re therefore now put on the powe of 460 nd 9 nd found the dmeter of the omet nresed n proporon to the power s t ought to e t s notewoh tht the le dd not nvrl ppl to the teescopes n use t Glleo's me Thus commenng on comet ofovemer 168 Horo Grss (On the Three Comets of 1618, n e Cont ofhe Comes of, op ct p 17) pon out tht when the comet ws oseed through telescope t suered sre n enrgement' nd he nfers perfectl n ccordne with Hersche's experience' tht t hve to e sd tht t s more remote from us thn the mn ' n hs snoml Bane (d p 80) he repets tht ccordng to the common experience of llusous sonome' from mn ps of urope' the omet oseed with ve extended teescope receved scrcel n ncrement Gleo (d p 1 ccepts ths s fct crczng on the oncusons whh Grss wnts to drw from t All these phenomen refute Gleo's sseron (ser op ct p ) tht the telescope wors ws n the sme w' The so undene hs theo of don (cf fote 56 to ths chpter) 2 Kopl op ct p 20 8 R Wof (Gchhe r nome, p 96) remr on the pr qul of Geo's drwings of the moon ( sene Adung des Mondes nn mn um ene Ke nennen') whe Znner (GchcherStn, Berln 9 p 4) ls Gleo's oseons of the moon nd Venus tpcl for the osetions of egnner' Hs pcture of the mn cordng to Znner hs no smilr with the oon' (d p 42) Znner so menons the muh etter qul of the lmost mutneous oseons mde the Jesuts (d p 4) nd he nll ss whether Geo's oseons of the moon nd Venus were not the result of ferle n rther thn of crefu ee (solte de der Wunsch der Vter der eohtung gewesen sen?') pernent queson especl n vew of the penomen rel descried n fooote 4 to ths chpter 9 The dsove nd dention of the moons ofupter were no men cheve ments especl s usefu stle suppo for the telescope hd not et een developed
4
AGAST MTHOD
I subm n ve neresng. N new suggesns emerge f r addnal research and he pssblt f a is raher reme 3 There are hwever her hheses whch d lead new suggesns and whch shw us hw cmplex he stuan was a he me f Gaile Le us cnsder he fllwng w Hhess I Galle recrded faihfull wha he saw and in hs wa le us evidence f he shcmngs f he rs ele scpes as well as f he peculiares f cnempra elescpic visin Inereed n his wa Galles drawngs are reprts f exac he same knd as are he reprts emer g frm he experments f Sran, Ehrsmann and Kher 3 - except hat he characerscs f he phsica apparatus and he un famiiart f he bjects seen mus be aken in accun . 32 We mus als remember he man cncng views whch were held abu he surface f he mn even a Galies e 33 and whch ma have nuenced what bseers saw. 34 Wha wuld be needed in rder shed mre ligh n he maer is an em pirca clecn f al he earl eescpic results, preferabl in parallel cumns ncludng whaever pcral represenans
p
30 The eon mong other thngs is the et vrion of teleopic vson from one osee to the next cf Ronch op ct Chpter V 3 1 For sue nd some noducto lterre cf Grego op cit Chpter For more detiled diusson nd litee cf KW Smith nd WM Smth Pton and Moton, hildelph 1962, eprinted in p n MD Veon op ct The reder should lso consult Ames' rcle Aniseionc Gses' Exraon n Trano Pcho, whch des wth the chnge of no vsion cused onl slgh nol opcl condons A comprehensive ccount s gven R e Naure ofPupaon, ew Yor 966 32. Mn of the old nsments nd excelent descripons of them re s vile Cf Zinner Dche und Nendche nomche nmte 33 For interesng nformon the rede shoud consult the reevnt psges of Kepes Coaton well of hs Somnum (the tter is now vlle in new tnson Rosen who hs dded consdele mount of cground mteri: K Somnum, ed Rosen Mdson 1967) The stndrd wor for the eefs of the me is sl lutrchs Fe on he Mn (i wll e quoted from H Cheiss trnson ofMora/aX, London 967) 34 One descries the mn er ojec one thins one cn perceve on its surfce (Kser op ct Vo p 67, commenng on Fontn's oseonl res of 16. Mesin even sw rn on the moon' (Kepler Coaon, op ct pp 9f presentng Mesns own oseonl repo); cf so d Vnc noteoos quoted rom JP Rchter e Noeboo ofLr Vn, Vo ew Yo 970 p 67 fou eep the detils ofthe sts ofthe moon unde oseon ou will oen nd gret von n them nd this mselfhve proved dwng them And this s cused the clouds tht se fom the wters in the mn ' For the nstilit of the mges of unnown ojects nd ther dependence on elef (o nowledge') cf Ronchi t op ct Chpter
5
have survived Sutracng instruental pecuiaries, such a collecon adds fascnang aterial to a yet-to-e-written history of percepon (and of science) This is the content of Hypothesis I Hypothesis II is ore specic than Hypothesis I, and develops it in a certain direcon. I have een considering it with varying degrees of nthusias, for the last two or three years and y interest in it has n revived y a letter fro Professor Stephen Toulin to who I a grateful for his cear and siple presentaon ofthe view. It sees to e however, that the hypothess is confronted y any dfculties and ust, perhaps, e given up. Hpothesis II, just lke Hypothesis I approaches telescopic reports fro the pont of view of the theo of perception; ut it adds that the pracce oftelescopic oseaon and acquaintance wth the new telescopic reports changed not only what was seen through the teescope bu als wa was seen w e naked e It is oviousy of iportance for our evaluaon of the contepora attude towards Galileo's reports. That the appearance of the stars and of the oon, ay at soe e have een uch ore indenite than it is today was originaly suggested to e y the estence of various theories aout the oon which are incopae with what everyone can plainy see with his own eyes Anaxander's theory of para stoppage (which aied to explain the phases of the oon) Xenophanes' elief the estence of dierent suns and dierent oons for derent zones of the earth Heraclitus' assupon that ecipses and phases are caused y the tuin of the asins, which for hi represented the sun and the oon al these views run counter to the estence of a stale and painly visie suface, a face' such as we know' the oon to possess The sae is ue of the theory of Berossos which occurs as late as Lucreus and, even ater, in Ahazen.
3 Cpte of Kopl op ct contns n nteesng collecon of excl is nd Wide scope s W Sculz De nshauung und sn Gal n yhos und Kuns Vlk Ben 1912. 36 One must of course lso nvesge e dependence of w is seen on te uen metods of pictol epresenton. Outsde sonom ts ws done b Gomc and luson London 1960 nd L. Count o and Bblo onoml uraon, ew Yor 94 (nsled wit ddions b Singer nd oes) wo des wt ntom Asonom s e dvnge tt sde of te puzze vz te strs s frl simple n structure (muc smpler tn e uerus for eme) nd relve wel nown cf so Cper 16 below 3 Fo tese eores nd fue iertue cf JLD Deer o o rno m Thl o Kl ew Yor 193 For Beossos f Toumns ce n , o 3 96, p 6 Luceus ?B es (n h Naur oThin, ns. Leond ew Yor 9 p 216: Agn se
AGAINST METOD
Now such sega fo phenomena whch fo us ae qute obvous ma be e ethe to a cetan neence towas the estg evence whch was howeve as cea an as etae as t s toda r ee t a derence n te nce tse It s not eas to chse between these alteaves Havng been nlenced b Wttgensten Hanson an othes I was fo some me nclne towads the secon veson bt t now seems to me that t s rule out both b phsoo (pscholo)39 an b hstoca nfomaon. We need on emembe how Copecs segaed the dcues asng fom the vaaons n the bghess of Mas and Venus whch wee wel nown at the me. 4 And as egas the face of the mn we see that Astotle efes to t qute cleal when obserg that the stas o not Fo og nvolves oon: but the "face as s caed of the moon s awas seen.' 4 We ma nfe then that the casona sega fo the sblt of the face was due not o a lac of cea mpessons but to some wde held vews about the uneablt of the senses. The nfeence s suppote b Putachs scusson of the matte whch panl eals not wth what s seen (except as evdence fo o agnst cetan vews) but wh cetan lanatns of phenomena othese sumed t be well : 4 To begn wth he sas t s absud o ca the gue seen n the mn an aecon ofvson . . . a condon whch we ca bealement (glae). Anone who asses ths does not obsee that ths phenomenon shoul athe have cued n elaon to the sun snce the sun ghts upon us een an volent an moeove oes not explan wh dul an wea ees sce no sncon ofshape n the mn but he ob fo them has an even an ll lght wheeas those of een and obust may reole un herselfI lke to a bal's sphere ifperchance o I one half ofhe dyed o'er wh glowng ligh I and by he revoluon of ha sphere I she may get fo us he vaing shapes I unl she s hat e pa of he I ll o he sig and on eyes ofmen .' 9 Cf ext o fotes 0 of my Reply o Csm', op it, p n anqui he dierences in he maiudes of Venus and Mars wee egaded as beng obious o ou eyes' Simplicius, De Clo , 1 , Heig, p 5 Polemarchus hee onsiders he diules of Eudoxos' heo of omen sphees, iz ha Venus and Mars apar in he mids of he eogae mement many mes bgher, so ha Venus on mnless nigh causes ies o ow shadows' (objecon of utolycus) and he may well apaling o he ssiili of a decepon ofhe senses (which w equeny diussed by ancien hl) ioe, who must have een familia wh al hese a, d no menon hem anywhee De Clo o in he Mhy hough he gives an accoun of udoxos' system and of he impoemen of Polemachus and Kaippus Cf ote o Chape 8. 4 1 De Clo, 2a5 42 op cit, p. c aso S Samursky, e Phyl Wod ofhe Gree N Yok, 1962, pp. 244
I
FIGU I he shape a unar munan and a aled pan rm Gaeo Sid Nunus, Vene, 1 60 ( p. I l l
7
8
A G A I S T M E T H OD
visn make t mre precisely and discy the patte f facial featres and mre clearly perceive the varans' he nevenness als enrely reftes the hypthess, Pltarch cnes,43 fr the shadw that ne sees s nt cnns and cnfsed, bt is nt badly depictred by the wrds f Agesianax "She gleams with re encircled, bt withn Bler than lapis shw a maden's eye And dainty brw, a visage manfest. In th, the dark patches sbmerge beneath the brght nes whch they encmpass . and they are thrghy entwined with each ther s as t make the delinean f the gre resemble a painng' Later n the stablity f the face s sed as an argment aganst theries whch regard the mn as being made f re, r air, fr ar is tens and wtht cngran, and s it natrally slps and des nt stay n place' he aeaan f the mn, then, seemed t be a wellknwn and dsct phenmenn hat was n qesn was the elane f the phenmenn fr asnmical thery e can safely assme that the same was e at the me f Galle45 B we ms adm a Gale s bseans ld be eked w e naked e and cld n s way be sed lls.
hs the crclar mnster belw the centre f the dsk f the mn is well abve the threshld f naked eye bsean (its 3 ibid., c however, foe 1 7 o this chaper liny's reark ( N II, 3, 6) that the n is now stted and then sddenly shining clear' as we as da Vinci's report, refeed to in fote 3 o this chapter ibid, p. 0 A song arguent in four of this contenon is Kepler's descipon of the n in his i of 16 he coens on the broken character o the bounda beeen ligt and shadow (Wke I, p 2) and describes the dark part of the n dring an eclipse as lking ike to lesh or broken wd (ibid, p 2 1 9). He ret to these passages in the Caion (op cit, p 27) where he tels Galileo that these ve acute obseaons oyors do not lack the spport ofeven y o tesony. For [in y] i you have the halfn divded by a way line Fro this fact I deduced peaks and depressions in the body of the oon. [Later on I describe the n duing aneclipse as looking like to lesh or broken wd, wth bright seaks peneang into the region of the shadow' Reeber also that Kepler cricies Galieo's telescopic rerts on the bis of his o naked eye obseaons; c fote 2 of this chapter. 6. The is on other point which I ust on no account fogt, which I have noced and rather wondered at it It is this The iddle of the Moon, as i sees, is cpied by a ceain cavy argr than al the rest, and in shape perfectly rond I have looked at this depression near both the t and the third quarte and I have epresented it as wel I can in the second illusaon aleady given It producs the sae appearance as to eects oflight and shade as a act like Boheia would produce on the Earth, if it were sht in on all sides by ve loy ontains aanged on the cicference of a perfect cie for the act in the n is waled i wth peaks of such enoous height tha the rthest side adjace to the dark poon othe
I
dameer s lage than 3 1/z mnutes of arc) whe a snge gance convnces us that the face of the moon s no anywhere dsgured by a emsh of hs knd. It woud be nteresn to see what contemora obseers had to say on the matter 4 or f they were arsts what they had to draw on the matter. I summaze what has emerged so far. Galeo was ony slghty acuanted wth contemora oca he. Hs teescoe gave susng results on the earth and these esults wee duly ased. Toube was to be exected n the sky as we know now Touble omty aose the teescoe oduced suous and conadcto henomena and some of ts esults could e efuted by a smle look wth the unaded eye Ony a ew he of teescoc vson could brng ode nto the chaos (whch may have been sll large due to the deent henomena seen at the me even wth the naked eye) and coud seaate aeaance fom ealty Such a theo was develoed by Kele rst 60 and then agan n 6 49 Accodng to Kee the lace of the mage of a uncform obect s foud by st acng the ath of the ays emegng fom the obect accodg to the aws of (eecon an) efacon unl they each the eye, and by then usng the nce (sl taught today) that the mage wl be seen n the ont determed by the backwad
ee ahed i suligh efore he oudary ewee ligh ad shade reaches hafway across he circular space . sg, op ci, pp 1 derpo, hik, deiely refues Kopals coecure ofoeaoa laxiy. I is ieresg o oe he dierece ewee he wdcus i he Nun 1 1 Figure ad alileos oiia dawg. he woodcu corresds quie closely o he derpo whle he oria dawg wh is impressioisc feaures (Kaum eie Kae, ys Wol) is ague eough o escape he accusao of goss oseaoa error 47 I cao help woderg aou he meaig of ha large circua caiy i a usualy cal he lef coe ofhe mouh,' wes Keple ( Coaon, op ci, p 8) ad he peeds o make cojecues o is orgi (coscious eos y ielige eis icluded 4 oempoary academic opcs we eyod simpe geomecal cosucos hich aileo may ae kow ad icluded a accou of wh se whe lkig a a mrro or hough a les, o a comiao ofleses xcepg irradiao aileo ohere cosides he poperes of eescopic son. Arsoelias wrg ae Gaieos eescopic oseaos did Cf Redodi, op. ci pp. l 69 49 I ae here disegarded he work of dela Poa (De Reone) ad of aoycus o o acipaed Kepler i ceai especs (ad ae duly meoed y him auolycs makes he imra sep Phom Lumne, as. Hery e, Ne Yok, 19 p. 4 (o mirro) ad p 74 (o leses of cosiderg oly he cusp of he causc; u a coeco w wha is see o dre isio is sll o esalishe d. For e dicules which were remoed y Keples simple ad igeious hyhesis cf Rochi, ore Lumre, Chaper III
100
AGANST METOD
intrscon of th rays of vision from both ys0 or in th cas of monoclar vision from th two sids of th ppil This rl which procds from th assmpon that th imag is th work of th act of vision s party mpircal and party omical It bass th poson of th mag on a mical triangl 2 or a tlmic trangl3 as Ronch calls t, 4 that s consctd ot of th rays whch naly arriv at th y and is sd by th y and e mnd to plac th imag at th propr distanc hatvr th opcal systm, whatvr th total path of th rays from th objct to th obsr th rl says that th mnd of th obsr lizs its ve l pa n and bass ts visa dgmnt, th prcpon on t Th rl considrably simpid th scnc of opcs Howvr it nds only a scond to show that it s fals tak a magning glass dtrmn its fs, and look at an obct clos to it Th tlmic iangl now rachs byond th objct to nnity A sigh chang of dstanc brngs th Kpran imag from innty to clos by and back to innity No sch phnomnon is vr obsd s th imag, slghty nlargd, in a distanc that is most of th m idncal with th acta distanc btwn th obct and th ns Th visa distanc of th imag rmains constant howvr mch w may va th distanc btwn lns and obct and vn whn th imag bcoms distortd and naly ds
50. Wke, II, p 72. The O of 16 ha bee paly alaed io Gea by F Pleh, K/ Gndg geomeh Ok, Lepzg, 922 he relea page cur eco 2 of Chaper 3, pp. 3848. 51. ibd, p. 67. 52. Cu ago u opu, bd, p I ioe ee eu cou ulo uo diaa e sefaoe, agulo ero ad lla daa oa e eu oooi ulo, ibd, p. 66 53. rialu diaae eoriu, bid, p. 67 54. Ot, op. ., p Oe hould ao ol he eod haper of h k for he ho of preKepleria opc 55. ibid, pp. 82, 202. Thi pheoeo wa kow o eeoe who had ued a agiig gl oly oe, Kepler luded. Whih hows ha diregad of faiiar pheoea d o eal ha he pheoea were ee dierey (f. e o foe o h haper. Iaac Baow aou of he duy of Kepler le w eoed aboe (e o foe I8 o Chaper 5. Ardg o Berkeley (op ., p. 1 4 I hi pheoeo . . . erey ube he opiio of hoe who hae u judge ofdiace by e ad agle. . . . Berkeley replae h opio by h ow heo acordg o whh he d dge dae fro he clariy or ofuio of he pria ipreio. Keper dea of he eleec rage wa adoped a oe by amo al hike he ed I was ge a fudaea poio by Decae aordig o whom Diaam . . dcu, per muuam quada copraoem lom D, qoed from Ra D Spe h/oh, Amerda, I 657, p 87 Bu, ay Baow, eiher hi or ay oher diuy hall . . make me reoue ha whh I kow o be maifely agreeable o reao. I i h ade
NNE
101
his the was the atual situao 1610 whe Galeo pushed his teesopi digs How dd Galieo eat to it? he aswe has aleady ee give: he ased the telesope to the state f a supeio ad ette sese 56 What wee his easos for dog whch ws responsible for the slow advance of a enc theo of e gs and of sual opcs n enera. The reon for this cular phenomenon,' writes ori von Rohr D Bg t tmt, Berlin 34, p 1) s to ught n e close connecon between the eye g and the eye and t is mssble to give an acceptable theo ofeye gasses without undetandn what hapns n the press of son tself . .' The teemec ange omits precisely ths press, or rather gives a smplisc and false account of it. e state of opcs at the beginnin of e 2 cenu s well ded n . Gullsand's pndices to Pa of elmhol's Treate Pys Ot, ansl. outhall, New Yo 1 962 pp 26 We read here how a reu to the psychophysiological press of vision enabled physicsts to arrve at a more renabe account even of e physics ofopcal mae The reon why the laws of actu opcal imae have en, to sak, summoned to life the requiremen of physiologcal opcs is due partly to the fact that means of nomecal calculao, tedious to be sure, but easy to rfo, it h been ssble for the opcal engineer to t closer to the reales of his problem Thus, thanks to the abou of such men b and his hl, technical opcs h attained prent splendid development; whereas, w e ienc mea available, a comprehensive rasp of the ncate laons n e ce of the ma in the eye h been actually mssble 56 Nchol Coicus, what a pleure t would have been for you to e this pa of your system coned so clear an epement!' writes Galileo, mplyin at the new teleopc phenomena are addona sup for Coicus De, op ct, p 339) The dence n the aparance ofpane and ed sta (cf fote 26 t ths chapter) he eplains by e hythesis that the ve insument of seen [the eye] nuces a hindrance of i o' (ibd., p. 335) and that the teleo removes ths hindrance, tn, rmtn the eye to see the sta and the planets hey really are (aio Giuducc, a follower of Galileo, ad diaon to refracon moisure on the surface ofthe eye, De t C f op ct., p. 47.) Ths eplanaon, pausible t may seem (escay in ew of Galieo's aempt t show how irradaon can be removed means other than the teeo) s nt as saihfoard one might wsh ulsand (op ct, p 426) ys that owin to he proes of e wave surface ofthe bundle ofrays refracted in the eye . . . t is a mathemacal imssibii for any crs secon to cut the causc surface in a smth cue n the fo of a circle concenc wth the pupi' er autho int to inhomoeneies n the various humou and ave all in e cstalne le' (onchi, t, op. cit, p ) Kepler gives is account C, op. cit, pp 33) Pont sources of light ansmt their cones to he cstalne lens There reacon takes pace, and behnd the lens the cones again conct to a int But is int ds not reach far the rena Therefore, the iht is dised once more, and spreads ver a small area of rena, where t should impnge on a int ence the teleo, nucin another refracon makes this int coincde wth e rena. . .' Pyak, n hs cassical work R, atibutes iradiaon paly to defec of the Jopcal meda and to the imperfect accommodaon' but chiey' to the culiar uctura consuon of the rena iel (p. 176) addn that t may a ncon of !e ran aso (p 42). None of these hyeses cove the facts kno aut aan. Gulsand, Ronchi, and Polyak (f we omit his reference to he brain
10
AGAINST METHOD
so? Ths qeson bings me back o he poblems aised by he edence (agains Copeics) ha was epoed and discssed in Chape 8
which can e made to explain anything we want) cannot explan the disapaance of idiaon n the teescope. Kepe Gllsand and onchi also fal to gie an accont of the fact emphasized y onch, that lage ojects show no iadiaon at ther edges (Anyone ndeaking to accont fo the phenomenon of adaon mst admit that when he lks at an eecic from afar so that it seems ike a int, he sees t sonded y an immense cown of ays whereas fom neary he sees nothing at all aond it,' , op. ci, p. I 05). We know now tha large ojec ae made denie y the lateal inhto nteacon of retina elements (whch s frther ncreased y ain fncon), cf. atli, Mh Ban, p 46, the aaon of the phenomenon wth the diamete of the oject and nde the condtions of teescopc son remains expored Galleo's hypothesis receed sp many fom ts ageemen wth e Copeican poin of ew ad w, theefoe, agey ho
10 n e er and ere are sme elcic pma wic are plain Ceican Galile inrduc e pma as inn ince r Ceis wile e siuain is raer a ne rued view Cicanism as a ceain simila pma emeng fm aner rued view e ia a elcic pma are iful images fe s
oring to the Copeian theo Mar an Venu approah an eee fro the earth y a fator of I 6 or I :8 repevely (Thee are approate nuer) Their hange of righe houl e 0 an I 60, repevely (thee are Gaileo value) Yet Mar hange ve litte an the variaon in the righe of Venu i alot ipereple Thee experiene overtly onait the annual oveent [of the earth 2 The teleope, on the other han, proue new an trange pma oe of the expoale a illuo y oeaon with the nake eye, oe ontraito, oe having even the appearane of eng illuo, while the only e that oul have rought orer into thi hao, epler theo of \ion i refute y eviene of the plainet kin poile ut - an t thi I oe to what I think i a entral feature of Galileo proeure ere are elescic pma, naely the teeopi variaon of the righe of the planet, wic agree mre cse wi Cpicus an e resuls fnakede bseain Seen through the teleope Mar oe inee hange a it houl aoring to the opeian view Copare with the total perforane of the teleope thi hange i ll quite puzzling It i jut a puzzing a i the opeian theo when opare with the preteleopi eviene ut the hange i in harony with the preion of eiu I is is any ather than any eep unertaning of Te aca vaa f Ma and en ae f made and ne
ande epecvey 2 Dialoe p ci, p 32
10
104
AGANST METOD
cmlgy and f pc wc fr Galle prves Ccus and e verac fe elesce n tereal as wel as celeal matte And t i th amny n whc he buld an enely new vew f the univee. Galile wte Ludvc Geymnat3 efeng t th apect f the tuan wa nt the t t tu the telecpe upn the heaven but . he wa the t t gap the enrmu nteet f the thng thu een And he undetd at nce that thee thing tted in pefectly wth the Cpecan the wheea they cnadicted the ld anmy. Galile had beleved f year n the uth f Cpecanim but he had neve been abe t demnate it depite hi exceedingly pmic tatement t fend and clleague [he had nt even been able t remve the efung ntance a we have een and a he ay hime. Shud direct pf [huld even mee age wth the evdence] be at lat ught here? The me th cnvcn tk t n hi nd the clearer t him became the imptance f the new nument n Gae wn mnd faith in the relabi f the telecpe and ecgnin f t imptance were nt w sarae s, athe they wee w aspes fe same pcess Can the abence f ndependent evidence be expeed mre clealy? The Nuncus wite Fanz Hamme in the mt cnce accunt have read f the matte4 cntain tw unknwn the ne beng ved with the hep f the ther' Thi enrely crrect ecept that the unknwn"ere nt much unknwn a knwn t be fae a Gale n ccan ay himef t th rather pecuar tuan thi hamny between tw ntereng but refuted dea which Gale expt n rder t prevent the eimnan f ether Exactly the ame prcedure ued t preee h new dynamic We have een that th cence t wa endangered by beable event T eliminate the dange Galle nduce fcn and the ditubance wth the hep f c hypthee eang them tendencie ned by the bviu dcrepancy between fact and the rather than a phyical event laned by a the f fricn fr which new and independent evdence ght me day becme op. cit. pp. 8 (my tacs). 4. Johann K Gammee Wee op. ct. Vol. , p. . Keple Coaon, op. ct. p. 4) speas o mutaly se-suppong eidence'. Remembe howee that what is mutally se-suppong' ae o euted hypotheses and no o hypotheses whch hae n suo in the domain o basc statemen. n a lette to eath o 26 Mach 598 Keple speas o the many eons' he wants to adduce o the moon o the eath addng that each o these eos taken o itsel wold nd only scant bele Johann K n sn B, Vol. Munch 1 90 p. 68).
TEN
S
available (such a theo arose only muh ater, in the 18th entu). Yet the agreement between the new dynams and the idea of the moon of the eath, whih Gaileo increases wth the hep of hs method of anamns makes both seem more reasonable The reader wll realze that a moe detailed study of hstora phenomena suh as these creates consdeable dues for the view that the anson from the pre-Copean osmoogy to that of the 17th entu onssted n the epaement of efued theores by moe genera onjetures whch explaed the refung nstanes made new predons and were oroboated by obseaons caried out to tes these new predcons And he wl pehaps see the merts of a deen vew whh asserts that, whe the pe Copean asonomy was n tble (was confonted by a seres of efung nstances and mpausbes) the Copean theo was n eat tble (was confronted by even moe das refung nstanes and mpausbes); but that beg in haony wt st f nqate te t ganed sength and was etaned the refutaons being made eeve by c hypotheses and lever echnques of persuason Ths would seem to be a muh moe adequae desrpon of the developments at the me of Gaeo than is oeed by amost al ateve aounts I sha now nterupt the hstoral narave to show that the descrpon s not only fal qate but that t s also pe easnable, and tha any atempt to enfoe some of the moe famar methodologes of the 20th centu woud have had dsasous consequenes
11 uc anal' mes f supp are nee because f e unen elmen a enn ferenpas fsence. Ccan sm an er senal ngreens fm sence sue n because reasn wasequen ele n erpas
A prevlent tendeny in phisphil disussins is t pprh prbles f knwledge sub spee aeas s it were Stteents re pred with eh ther withut regrd t their hist nd withut nsidering tht they ight belng t dierent histril strt Fr exple ne sks given bkgrund knwledge inil ndins bsi priniples epted bsens wht nlu sins n we drw but newly suggested hypthesis? he nswes v nsiderbly Se sy tht it is pssible t deterne degrees f nn nd th the hypthesis n be evuted with their hep Othes rejet ny lgi f nn nd judge hyptheses by thei ntent nd by the fsins tht hve tuly ued But lst evene kes it fr grnted tht peise bsens er prinipes nd welnred theries are alrea c tht they n nd ust be used ere an nw t eithe eiinte the suggesed hypthesis t ke it eptbe r pehps even t prve it Suh pedure kes sense ny if we n ssue tht the eeents f ur knwledge the theries the bsens the prinipes f ur rguents e meless en whih she the se degree f perfen re ll equly essible nd re relted t eh ther in wy th is independent f the events tht prdued the his is f urse n exteely n ssupn I is ken fr grnted by st lgiins; it underies the fir disinn between ntext f disve nd ntext f jusn; nd it is ften expressed by sying tht siene dels with prpsins nd n with steents r sentenes Hwever the predure verlks tht siene is plex nd heergeneus scalprcs whih nins vgue nd inheent niipns f future idelgies side by side with highly sphisted thee 106
LVN
107
sysems an ancien an pee os o hough Some o ts eements ae avaabe in he om o nealy wen saemens whie ohes ae submege an become known ony by conas by compason wih new an unusual views (his is he way in which he invee owe amen hepe Galieo to iscove he naual inepeaons hosle o Copeicus An his is also he way in which Einsein iscovee ceain eepying assumpons o classical mechancs such as he assumpon o he estence o inntey as signals o genea conseaons c he las paagaph o Chape 5) Many o he conicts an contaicons wch occu in science ae ue o his heeogeney o he maeia o hs unevenness' o he hisoical evelopmen as a Mas woul say an hey have no immeiae heoecal signicance hey have much in common wih he poblems which aise when a powe Accordng to Ma, seconda pas of the sal press, sch as demand, arsc prodcon or legal reaons, may get ahead of mateal prodcon and drag t aong: cf e e ofhilohy bt especally the ndion o he Ce of oliil Eno, Chcago, 191, p 309: he neqa relaon beween the development ofmaterial prodcon and a, for nstance In general, the concepon of progess s not to be taken n the sense ofthe usual absaon In the case ofa, etc, t s not so mpoant and dcult to understand ths dsproporon as n that ofpraccal sal relaons, eg the reaon beween educaon n the US and urope he really dcult pont, however, that s to be dussed here s that of the nequal development of reaons of pructon as egal relaons rosky descbes the same staon: he gist of the matter es n ths, that the derent aspecs of the hstorical progress economcs, lcs, the state, the growth of the workng class do not develop smutaneously along parale lnes (he Sch of Revoluona Sate, speech devered at the genera pay membershp meeng of the Moscow rganzaon of Jy 19 I, publshed n e i ie Yea ofhe Commn Inial Vol II, New Yo, 193, p ) See also Lenn, L- Wing Cmnm an Inntile Dorr (op ct, p 9), conceng the fact that mulpe cases ofan event may be out ofphase and have an eect only when they cr together In a deent fo, the thess ofneven deveopment deals with the fact that captalsm has reached derent stages n derent cones, and even n derent pa of the same con hs second pe of uneven development may lead to nvee elaons between the accompanying deologes, that ecency n prucon and radcal lcal deas develop n invee poporons In cvlzed urope, with s hghly developed machine ndus, rich, mu fo clte and s constons, a pont of hsto has been eached when the commandng bogeose, feang the gowth and nceasng sength of the proetarat, comes out n sppo ofevethngbackwad, moribund, and medeva t all yong sa grows a mghty demrac movement, speadng and ganng n seg (Lenn, ackwad ope and dvanced Asa, Coleed Wor, Vo 1 9, op t, pp 99) Fo ths ve nteesng staon, whch desees to be exploted fo the hosophy ofscence, c C Meyer, Linm, Cambrdge, 9, Chapter 1 and L Ahusse, or Ma London and New Yo, 190, Chaptes 3 and he hosphcal background s splenddly expaned n Mao se-tngs essay onii (SeleedRein, Pekng, I 90, p 0, especally seon IV)
108
AAS MOD
staon is neee ight next to a Gohic caheal Occasionaly such featues are taken into account; fo example when it is assete hat physical laws (statements) an bological laws (statements) beong to ieent conceptual omains an cannot be iecty compare But in most cases an especially in the case obseaon vs theo ou methoologies poject the vaious elements of science an the ierent histoical strata they occupy on to one an the same plane an pree at once to ener compaave jugements. This s lke aranging a ght between an infant an a gown man an announcng umphanty what is obvious anyway that the man is going to win (the hsto of scence s full of inane cicisms of hs kn an so is the hsto ofpsychoanalysis an ofMaxsm) In ou examinaon ofnew hypotheses we must obviously take the histoical stuaon into account. Let us see how this is gong to aect our jugement! The geenc hypothess an Aistote's theo of knowlege an percepon are well aapte o each othe Percepon suppos the theo of lomoon tha entails the unmove eath an it is n tu a special case of a comprehensive view of moon that inclues lomoon ncrease an ecrease qualtave alteaon geneaon an copon. Ths compehensive view enes moon as the ansion of a fom from an agen to a paen whch teminates when the paent possesses exacty the same fom that characteize the agent at the beginning of the inteacon Pecepon accongly is a press in which the fom of he objec peceve entes the percipient as pecisely he same fom that characteze the obec so that the pecipen in a sense assumes the propees of the object A heo of percepon of this kin (which one might rega a sophiscate vesion of naive ealism) oes not pemt any majo iscrepancy beween obseaons an he things obsee That thee shoul be things in the worl which are naccessble to man not only now an fo the me being but in pinciple an because ofhis natual enowment an which woul herefoe neve be seen by hm this was qute inconcevable fo later anqu as wel fo the Mie Ages'2 No oes the heo encouage the use of 2 F Blumenberg, G Ga/iei Si Nn NhhvonnS, Vol I, Frankfu 1965 p. 13 Arisole himself w more open-mnded: he evdence (conceng celesal phenomena) s fuished bu scany by sensaons, where respecng perishable pans and animals we have abndan nformaton, lng as we do n ther mdst 'DePaAnim., 6b26 In what folows, a hghly dealzed acont s gien oflater Aristoteansm nless oese sated, the word rstole' refe to th dealon For the dctes in forming a coherent pture of risole hiecf ,Aoel, eidelberg, 966 For me derenes beeen rstotle and hs mediaeal followers cf Wolfgang Weland DieAoe/he Phyik, Gtngen, 1970
EEVEN
/0
nstrumnts, for th ntrfr with th rosss in th mdium. Ths rosss ary a tru tur onl as long as thy ar ft undsturbd. Disturbans rat forms whih ar no ongr dnal wth th sha of th objts rvd thy rat lluns Suh illusions an b radiy dmonstratd by xamining th imags rodud by urvd mirrors, 3 or by rud lnss (and rmmbr that th lnss usd by Galilo wr far from th lvl of rfion ahivd today) thy ar distord, th lnsimags hav olourd frings thy may aar at a la diffrnt from th la of th objt and so on. Asonom, hysis, syholog, istmol o all ths disilins ollaborat with th Aristotlian hilosohy o rat a systm that is ohrnt, raonal and in agrmnt with th rsults of obsrvaon as an b sn from an xamnaon of Arisotlian hlosohy in th form in whih it was dvlod by som mdiaval hilosohrs. Suh an analysis shows th inhrnt owr of th Aristotlian systm. Th rol of obsrvaon in Arstotl is quit intrsng. Aristotl is an miriist. His injunons against an ovrlythoral aroah ar as mlitant as thos of th sin mriists of th 17th and 1th nturis. But whil th lattr ta both th uth and th ontnt of miriism for grantd, Aristotl xlains th natur of xrin and why it is imorant Exrin is what a normal obsrvr (an obsrvr whos snss ar in good ordr and who is not drun or sly t.) rivs undr normal irumstans (broad daylight; no intrfrn wth th mdium) and dsribs n an idiom that ts th fats and an b undstood by all. Exrin is mpan knwledge baus givn normal irumstans, th rons of th obsrvr ontain idnally th sam forms that rsid in th objt. Nor ar ths xlanaons c Thy ar a dirt onsqun of Aristotl's gnral tho of moon, tan in onjunon wth th hysiologial ida that snsaons oby th sam hysial laws as dos th rst of th univs. And thy ar onrmd by th vidn that onrms ithr of ths two viws (th stn of dstord lns-imags bing ar of th vidn). W undstand today a lttl btt why a tho of moon and ron whih s now gadd as fals ould b so sussful (voluona xanaon of th adataon of ogansms; movmnt in mda). 3 Aey p mio gie e teeig io o oce t oo yoef i pi mio Yo wi ee yo fce o' e Te et ome em codee o te fe of e mio dw te ot ie of yo fe i te tem e otie wi oo bo f e ie of yo fce
110
AGAIS MEHOD
The fac eans ha no ecsve epca aguen coul be ase agans (hough was no fee fo fcues). Ths haony beween huan pecepon an he Asoelan cosoloy s egae as lluso by he suppoes of he oon of he eah. In he view of he Copecans hee es lagescale pocesses whch nvolve vas cosc asses an ye lee n race n ou epeence The esen obseaons heefoe coun no longe as ess of he new basc laws ha ae beng popose. They ae no ecy aache o hese laws, an hey ay be enely scon nece. y aer he success of oe scence le o he belef ha he elaon beween an an he unvese s no as siple as s assue by naive ealis, we can say ha hs was a coec guess, ha he obsee s nee sepaae fo he laws of he wol by he specal physcal conons of hs obseaon plafo, he oving eah (gavaonal eecs aw of nea Cools foces nuence of he aosphee upon opcal obseaons abeaon sella paalla an so on . .), by he iiosyncases of hs basc nsuen of obseaon, he huan eye (aaon afeages uual nhbon of ajacen enal eleens an so on . .) as wel as by ole views which have nvae he obseaon language an ae speak he language of nave eals (naual nepeaons). Obseaons ay conan a conbuon fo he hing obsee, bu hs conbuon eges wh ohe eecs (soe of whch we have jus enone), an ay be copleely obleae by he. Jus consie he iage of a e sa as viewe hough a elescope. This age s isplace by he eecs of efacon, abeaon an, possibly, of gaviaon I conans he specu of he sa no as s now, bu as was soe e ag (n he case of eagalacc supeovae he eence ay be llons of yeas), an soe by Dopple effec, neenng galacc ae, ec. Moeove, he eenson an he ineal sucue of he age s enely eeine by he elescope an he eyes of he obsee: s he elescope ha eces how lage he ffacon sks ae going o b, an s he huan eye ha eces how uch of he sucue of hese sks s going o be seen. I nees conseable skll and muc e o solae he conbuon of he ognal cause, he sa, an o use fo a es, bu hs eans ha nonAisoelian cosologes can be ese only afe we have saraed obseaons an laws wh he help of aula scences escbng he cople pocesses ha occu beween he eye an he objec an he even oe cople pocesses beween he coea an he bain. We us subd wha we peceve o n a coe ha os he sulus an nohng else. In he case of Copecus we nee a new meerl (in he goo ol
FI 2 Moo s ys (s que).
I
11
AAS MOD
sns of th wo as alng wth thngs blow th oon a nw scnc ofpyslgcal that als with th subjc (n an th objc (lght u lnss suctu of th y aspcts of ison as wll as a nw dynam stang th ann n whch th oon of th ath ght nunc th physical psss at ts sufac Obsaons bco lant ony aer th psss scb by ths nw subjcts ha bn nst btwn th wol an th y. Th languag n whch w xpss ou obsaons ay ha to b is as wll so that th nw cosolo cs a fa chanc an is not nang by an unnoc collaboaon of snsatons an ol ias. In su wa s needr
a fCcus s an re new wrld-vew cnanng a new vew f man and fs capac fknwng 4
4. Baco realized that sciec chage ivoves a refoao ot oy of a few ideas, ut of ere word-view ad, perhaps, of the ve ature of humas For the seses are wea and errng, he writes in Num anum Aphosm 50 For mas ese i falsely asseed to e the stadard of things o the cona, all the rceptions, h of the seses and of the mid ear referece to ma ad ot to he univese, and the human mind resemles those ueve mios which impa their o propees to dierent ojects from which rays are emited and disto and disgure them (phosm 4) Bacon repeatedy comments on the dullness, icompetency and eos of the seses (50) ad peits them oly to udge . . the expemet while it is the expeme hat fucons as a judge of nature and he thing itself (50) hus whe Bacon speas of the uprejudiced senses he ds o mea sense-data, or immediate impresions, ut reactions of a ense organ ha h be rebu in order o mior nature i te ght way Research demands ha he re human ng be rebu his idea of a physica ad menal refo of humanity has reigious features A demolishig rach ( 5) a expiato press, a puicaon of the mind (69) must precede the accumuaon of owedge Our oy hope of savatio is o egin the whoe laour ofte mid agai (Preface) u ony aer having ceansed, polished, and leveled its surface ( 5) Preconceied otions (36 opinions (42, eve the most common words (59, 1 2 1 ) must e ajured and renounced wth and solem esoluon . . so that he access o the igdom of man, which is fouded o the sciences, may reseme tat to the ingdom of heave, where no admission s conceded except to chidre (68 refo of ma is necessa for a coect science ut i is o sucient Science, according to Bacon, no only ordes eves, it is al supposed to give physical reasons hus Ptolemy and Copeicus give u the numer, situao, moo, ad pes of he stas, as a eauful ouside of he heavens, whilst the esh and the eais are watig; that is, a well faicated system, or the physical reasos and foudaons for a just theo, that should no oly solve phenomea, as amost any igeious heo may do, ut show the susace, motios ad iueces of the heavely ies as they really are. An ofLeang Chapter 4 quoed fom Wiley New Yor, 9 p 85 Cf al the Num anum op cit, p. 371 For et no oe hope to deteine the queso wheher he eah or heave revolve in he diual moo, unless he have s comprehended he aue of sponaneous moon the ew ma needs a new physics i order to give sustance o his asonomy. aileo did ot succeed in poviding such a physics
ELEEN
11
It is obvious that suh a new wolview will take a long me appeaing, an that we may neve succee to fomulate it in its ene It is extemely unlikely that the iea of the moon of the eath will at once be followe by the aival, in full fomal splenou, ofall the sciences that ae now sai to constute the body ofclassical physics O, to be a little moe ealisc such a sequence of events is not only exemey unlikely, s mpssble n prnple given the natue of humans an the compees of the wol they inhabit Toay Copecus, tomoow Helmholtz - this is but a topian eam Yet it is ony aerthese sciences have aive that a test can be said to make sense This need to wa and to re lage masses of cica obseaons and measuements, is haly eve discussed in ou methodologies Disegading the possibili that a new physics o a new asonomy mght have to be judged by a new theo of knowedge and mght equie enely new tests, empiicay incine sciensts at once confont it with the saus qu and announce iumphany that it s not in ageement with facts and eceived pincipes They ae of couse ight and even ivialy so, but not in the sense intended by them Fo at an ealy stage of development the conadicon ony inicates that the od and the new ae d and u fpe. does not show which view is the be one A udgement of s kind pesupposes that the competos confont each othe on equal tems How shal we peed in ode to bing about such a fai compaison? The st step is clea: we must rean the new cosmoogy unl it has been suppemented by the necessa aulia sciences We must etain it in the face of plain and unambiguous eng facts We may of couse to elain ou acon by saying that the ccal obseaons ae eithe not eevant o that they ae iluso, but we annot suppot such an elanaon by a singe obecve eason hateve elanaon we give is nothing but a veal gure, a gee invitaon to pacipate in the deveopment of the new philosophy No can we easonably emove the eceive e of pecepon which says that the obseaons ae eevant, gives easons fo ths asseon, an is conmed by indepenent evdence Thus the new iew is abiaily sepaated fom ata that suppoed its pedecesso ciecevig philosophes, icludig those wh call themselves crical ae qic to cicie thike who do not share their pet ide Baco was oe cicied t at oce alling or Cpeicus e w cicied or this uspeakable cime by phisophe whose own raonaism would never have aowed Coicus to live example is K Pppe, andI En o 2 p 6
114
AANST ETHOD
and made moe 'metaphyical: a new peod n the hto of cence commence wth a bard mt that etu u to an eale tage whee theoe wee moe vague and had malle empcal content Th backwad movement i not ut an accident it ha a denite ncon t eenal ifwe want to oveake the stat q fo t give u the me and the feedom that ae needed fo developng the main ew in detail and fo ndng the necea aua cence 5 Th backwad movement i indeed eenal but how can we peuade people to follow ou lead? How can we lue them away fom a well-dened ophicated and empically ucceful ytem and make them anfe thei aegiance to an unnihed and abud hypothe? To a hypothei moeove that i conadicted by one obeaon ae anothe if we ony take the ouble to compae it wth what planly hown to be the cae by ou ene? How can we connce them that the ucce ofthe stat only appaent and bound to be hown a uch in 00 yea o moe when thee i not a ngle agument on ou ide (and emembe that the lluaon I ued two paagaph ealie deive thei foce fom the uccee of clacal phyc and wee not avaable to the Copecan) 6 It clea that aegiance to the new idea have to be bought about by mean othe than agument It wll have to be bought about by atnal means uch a popaganda emoon c hypothee and appeal to pejudce of all knd We need thee iaona mean n ode to uphold what i nothing but a blind fath un we have found the auia cience the fact the agument that tu the faith nto ound 'knowledge t i n thi context that the e of a new ecula cla wth a new outlk and condeable contempt fo the cience of the chl t method it eult even fo it language become o impoant The babac Lan poken by the chola the ntelectual qualo of acadec cience it othe-woldline whch i n nteeted a uelene it connecon wth the Chuch a thee element ae 5. A exampe of bcwrd moveme of ths kid is lleo's etu to he iemcs of he maolus d his dsrerd for he mche of epcles s developed i the De Rol For dmrble raional ccout of ths step cf me Los d Eli Zhr Why Dd Copeicus' esech Progre Supeede Ptoemy's?' i Imre Laos Philoshil Pap Vol Cmbrde 97 They were vilble to he scepcs especilly to Aeesdemus who ts out foowg Phio tha o obect appe s it is bt is modied by be combed wth ai ht hmid heat etc cf. Diog Lius, . Howeve it seems ht the scepcal vew hd oly lttle ilece o the developmet of me oomy ad udesdably : oe ds ot sta movemet by beg esoble.
EEVE
115
now l�ed togethe with the Aistotelian cosmolo and the contempt one feels fo them is ansfeed to eve single Aistotelian agument 7 This guiltbyassiaon does not make the aguments less ranal o ess concusive bu reduc er nuce on the minds of those who ae wiling to foow Copeicus Fo Copeicus now stands fo pogess in other aeas as well he is a symbol for the ideals of a new class that ooks back to the classical mes of Plato and Ciceo and foard to a free and pluaisc siety The associaon of asonomica ideas and histoica and cass tendencies does not produce new arguments either But it engendes a m commient to the heiocenic vew - and this is al that is needed at this stage as we have seen We have also seen how mastefuly Galieo exploits the situaon and how he ampies it by icks jokes and nn-sequu of his own. We are hee deaig with a situaon that must be anaysed and undestood if we want to adopt a moe easonabe attude towards the issue between reason' and iaonality Reason gants that the ideas which we ioduce in ode to expand and to improve our For thee ial prere cf. Ohki' magncent Gchiche nprh lich sschalh Liaur For the role of Pritanim f. F. Jone, op it Chapter V and 8. In a remarkable book, eic Prineton 98 rt pblihed in Italian in 982) Pieo edond ha deribed the grop both nde the Chrch and inding the Pope himel) and oide of it who ked faorably n new cien deeopment, the ew on pereption ontinty maer and moon that had been explained by Gaieo in Ass� among them Being n diret ont with the adiona aont of the Ehari the mot iman arament, thee vew were conderably more dangero than Copeianim and cold be tolerated only a long a the grop and the Pope hmelf had the pper hand n the omplex lal deeopmen ofthe me Thr ear' War French and panh the Frenh aiane with the Pope) The poia reveral of he Pope' fone the aon of lnenc oward heret that were raed agant him on a grod a hadow on h attde oward cientic maer a well here too, he eemed to ppo herey) and made proetive meare neea edondi e o how a) ha he phy of the time wa onneted with theologal dine h a the dtrine of the Ehari and ha a hio of iene that neglet the onneon beome inomprehenbe and b) that the attitde toward ien problem caed by he conneon and th the attde oward innovaon hanged wth the politica cmae The eond pa of b) may wel e b there ony weak evidene o p the re what Gaieo ay abou aomim in the Ass� i muh t brie and indene to coni with anubtanaton it i an ade amot no an elaborate taement) and with the exeption ofa rather problema dumen no uh conit wa pereved. Cf. . Wetfa, Ess�s he T of Galeo Vaan Obeato Pblaon 989 pp 84) Wha i valuabe in edond' aount hat he wden the doman of pobe inuene and thu undene the anahron) belef tha hen a now ien raonalty w reed to the nteal problem taon of a en diiplne
11
AGAIS MEO
knowledge may ase in a very disorderly way and that the gn of a parcular point of vew may depend on cass prejudice passion personal idiosyncrasies quesons of sle and even on error pure and simple. But it aso demands that in judgng such ideas we follow certain wel-dened rues our aluan of ideas must not be invaded by irraonal elements. Now what our historical examples seem to show is this: there are situaons when our most libera judgements and our most libera rules would have eliminated a point ofview which we regard today as essena for science and would not have permtted it to prevai and such situaons cur quite frequently. The ideas survved and they nw are said to be in agreement with reason. They survved because preudice passion conceit errors sheer pigheadedness in short because al the elements that characterize the context of discovery sed the dictates of reason and beuse e "anal els wee peed e e way To express it dierently Cnsm and anal ews s y n because easn was eled a sme me n e pas (The opposite is also true: witchcraft and other 'irraona views have ceased to be inuena only ecause reason was
overrued at some me in past) Now assuming that Copecanism is a Good Thing we must also admt that its survval is a Good Thig. And considerig the condions of its survval we must further admit that it was a Good Thing that reason was overrued in the 16th 17th and even the 18th centuries. Moreover the cosmologists of the 16th and 17th centuries did not have the knowledge we have today they did not know that Copecanism was capable of givng rise to a scienc system that is acceptabe from the point ofview of'scienc method. They did not know which of the many views that ested at their me would lead to ture reason when defended in an irraonal way. Beig without such guidance they had to make a guess and in makng this guess they coud oy folow their inclinaons as we have seen. Hence it is advisabe to let ones inclinaons go agaist reason n any cmsanc for it makes ife ess constrained and science may prot from it. 9 hs consdraons rt J. orlng ho n Bh Joalr he Philos ofS Vo. 23 1 972. 89f prsns my aonasm as a prsupson of my rsarch, not a rsut. connus: . on ould ha thoght that th phlosophr of scnc oud b mos nrstd n pckng ou and analysng n dtal thos scnc argumns hch dd sm to b raonaly rconsucbl On old ha thought that th phlosophr of scnc od b most nrsd n pckng o and anaysng n dtal thos mos hch ar ncssa for th a of scnc. Sch movs I ha d o sho on rss raonal rconsucon
LV
117
It is cear tha this argument that advises us not o let reason overrule our iclinaons and occasionally to suspend reason altogether does not depend on the historical material which I have presented If my account of Galieo is historically correct, then the argument stands as formulated If it tus out to be a faitae then ths faitae tells us that a conict between reason and the precondions of progress is pble, it indicates how it might arise, and it forces us to concude that our chances to progress m be obstructed by our desire to be raona And note that progress s here dened as a raonalisc over of science would dene t, ie as entailing that Copecus is better than Aristote and Einstein better than Newton Of course, there is no need to accept this denon which is certainy quite narrow I use it only to show that an idea of reason accepted by the majority of raonalists may prevent progress as dened by the ve same majority I now resume the discussion of some details of the anson from Aristote to Copeicus he rst step on the way to a new cosmology I have said, is a step bck: apparenty relevant evidence is pushed aside, new daa are brought in by c connecons the emprical content of science is drascaly reduced Now the cosmology that happens to be at the centre of attenon and whose adopon causes us to cary out the changes just described ders from other views in one respect only it has features which at the me in queson seem atracve to some people But there is hardly any idea that s totally without meri and that might not also become the starng point of concenated eot No invenon is ever made in isolation and no dea s therefore completely without (abstract or empirica) support Now if paral support and paral plausibility suce to start a new end and I have suggested that they do f starng a new end means takng a sep back from the evidence ifany idea can become plausbe and can receive paral support, then the step bac is in fact a step foard and away from the yranny of ghtyknit, highly corroboraed, and gracelessly presened theorecal systems Another dierent error' writes Bacon on precisely this point, 1 0 s the perempto reducon of knowledge nto as and methods from whch me the sciences are sedom improved; for as young men rarely grow in stature aer ther shape and limbs are fully formed, so knowledge whils t lies in aphorisms and observaons remains in a grong Aanc ofLeaing 5 edn) New rk 9 2 Cf s he Num anm, hrsms 9 86 s we sJWN Wkns' sendd e bk obb Syt of Lndn 965 . 69.
118
AGAST ETHOD
state; but when once fashioned into methods, though it may be further polished iusated and ted for use, is no longer increased in buk and substance.' The similarity wth the arts which has often been asseted arises at exacty this point. Once it has been realized that a cose empirica t is no virtue and that it must be reaxed in mes of change, then style eegance of expression simplicity ofpresentaon tension ofplot and narrave and seducveness of content become impotant features of our knowledge. They give ife to what is said and hep us to overcome the resistance of the obseaonal matera 1 They ete and maintain interest in a theo that has been partly removed from the obseaona plane and woud be inferior to its rivas when judged by the customa standards. It is in this context that much of Gaileos work shoud be seen. This work has often been ikened to pgn and propaganda it cetainly is. But propaganda of this kind is not a margina aair that surrounds alegedly more substanal means of defence and that should perhaps be avoided by the professionaly honest scienst. In the circumstances we are considering now, pgn s f te sce It is of the essence because interest must be created at a me when the usua methodoogical prescripons have no point of atack and because this interest must be maintained perhaps for centuries unl new reasons arve. It is also cear that such reasons i.e. the appropriate aulia sciences, need not at once tu up in ful foal splendour. They may at rst be quite inarculae and may even conict with the esng evidence. Agreemen or para agreement wth the cosmolo is al that is needed in the begnning. The agreement shows tha they are at eas relnt and that they may some day produce ful-edged posive evidence. Thus the idea that the telescope shows the word as it realy is eads to many difcules. Bu the suppot it ends to and receives from, Copeicus is a hn that we might be moving in the righ drecon. We have here an exremey ineresng reaon between a genera view and the parcuar hypotheses which constute its evidence. It is ofen assumed tha genera views do no mean much uness the reevant evidence can be fuy specied. Caap for exampe asserts that there is no independen interetaon for [the anguage in es of which a cetain theo or word-view is fouaed]. The system [the aoms of the theo and the rues of derivaon] is itsef 1 . Wha resues o sciec pheomeon is lie is a The D ofAna Nin, Vol ! p 277 2. C. A Koyr, E Gailn, Vo Il, Paris 939, pp. 53
EEVEN
11
an unntereted postulate system. [Its] terms obtan only an indirect and incompete interetaon by the fact that some of them are connected by correspondence rues with obseaonal terms' 13 There is no independent nteretaon, says Caap and yet an idea such as the idea of the moon of the earth, whch was inconsistent with the contempora evdence, whch was upheld by declaring ths edence to be irrelevant and which was therefore cut from the most important facts of contempora asonomy, managed to become a nucleus, a cstallizaon point for the aggregaon of other nadequate views which gradually increased in arculaon and naly fused into a new cosmolo including new kinds of edence There is no beter account of ths press than the descripon which John Stuart Mil has left us of the cissitudes of his educaon Referring to the explanaons whch his father gave hm on logical maters he writes The explanaons did not make the matter at al cear to me at the me but they were not therefore useess they remaned as a nucleus for my obseaons and reecons to cstallize upon the mport of hs general remarks beng interpreted to me, by the parcular instances whch came under my noce In exactly the same manner the Copeican ew though devoid of cognive content from the pont of ew of a sct empiricism or else refuted was needed n the consucon of the suppementa sciences even before it became testable with their hep and even before it, in tu proded them with supporng edence of the most forcefu knd There is a further element n ths tapesy of moves, nuences, beliefs whch is rather interesng and which received atenon ony recently - the role of paonage Today most researchers gan a reputaon a saa and a pension by being assiated with a university and/or a research laborato. Ths nvolves certain condions such as an ability to work n teams, a wilngness to subordnate one's deas to those of a team eader, a harmony between ones ways of dong scence and those of the rest of the professon, a ertain style, a way of presenng the edence and so on. Not eveyone ts condions such as these abe people reman unemployed because they fa to sas some of them. Conversely the reputaon of a unversity or a research laboratoy rises with the
13 e eodoloca Caace of eoeca Concep', innoa Sdi n he Philoshy ofSce, Vo I nneal, p 47 14 Aobioap, quoed fom Essial Wor ofJohn S il ed ee,
New Yo, 196 p 2 1
10
AAIST METOD
reputaon o its ebers In Gaieo's e patronage payed a sar roe There were certan ways o ganng a paon and o keepng hi The paon in tu rose in esaon ony i he succeeded to atact and to keep ndviduas o outstanding acheveent Accordng to Westa 1 5 the Church peritted the pubcaon o Gaileo's Dale in the u owedge o the conoversia atters contained in it [not east because a Pope [Urban VIII] who goried in his reputaon as a Maecenas, was unwng unwng to pace t in jeopardy jeop ardy by by saying saying no to the ight ohis es' es ' and Gaieo e because he vioated his side o the ues o patronage Considering a these eeents, the Rise o the Copecan WordView' becoes a copicated atter ndeed Accepted ethodoogca rues are put asde because o socia requireents aons need to be persuaded by eans ore eecve than arguent) nsuents are used to redene experience nstead o being tested by it, oca resuts are exapoated into space despte reasons to the conar conary, y, anaoges abound abound and yet a this this tus out n reospect to have been the correct way o circuvenng the resicons pied pied by by the the huan condion cond ion Ths s the ateria ateri a that shoud be used to get better insight into the copex process of owedge acquson and iproveent iproveent To su up up the content content o the ast ast ve ve chapters: chapters: When the Pythagor Pythagorean ean idea' o o the oon o the earth was revive revived d by Copecus t et wth dicues which which exceeded the dcue dc uess encountered by conteporary Ptoeaic asonoy Sicty speak ing, one had to regard rega rd t as reuted reuted Gaieo, who was convinced convince d o the uth o the Copecan view and who did not share the qute coon, though by no eans universa, universa, beien a stabe experience, ooked or new kinds of act which ght support Copeicus and s be acceptabe accep tabe to a a Such acts he obtained in two dere derent nt ways ways Frst, by the nvenon nvenon o his elce, which changed the ss cre o everyday experience and repaced it by puzzing and unexpaned phenoena; and by hs pncple frela and s dnam whch cmpns s Neither the teescopc changed its cncual cmpn teescopc phenoena phenoe na I. p. cit., p. 73. Fuher details details these these atters atters Chapter Chapter 8 te te 2 the preset essa Gaeoo and and theA Westal, p. cit., ad M. iagi, Gaeo oui. M. Fichiar, Gae Drdrecht, 80, has ceted ceted ale's use rhetric, whe ofReoning Drdrecht, Pera ad WR Shea (eds, Pui Puing ng Sce Sce e e A ofStc Stc Rhetoc, Rhetoc, 1 , and especi Marce Pera, Sce and Rhetoc, hcig, cet scec rhetrc rhetrc n geera.
ELEE
11
no the new n ew ides ide s of moon moon wee we e cceptbl cceptblee to t o common common sense sen se (o to the Aristotelins) Besides, the ssocited theories could be esily shown to be flse Yet these flse theories, these uncceptble phenomen, wee tnsfomed by Glileo nd conveted into stong uppot of Copeicu The whoe rich eseoi of the evedy perience nd of the intuition of his eders is ulized in the rgument, but the fcts which they re invited to recll re rnged in new wy, ppromtions e mde, known effects re omitted, dieent conceptul lines e dwn, so tht w w kd kd f r r rise, maufaurd lmost out of thin i This new experience is thn ldd by insinung tht the reder hs been fmilir with it ll the me t is solidied nd soon ccepted s gospel tuth, despite the fct tht its conceptul components e vstly more speculve thn re the conceptu components of common sense Following posivisc usge we my therefore therefore sy tht Gileo Gile o science rests on lurad map mapy y The distoron permits Glileo to dvnce, n lurad but it prevents lmost eveone else from mking his effot the bsis of cricl philosophy philosop hy (fo (for ong me emphsis emph sis ws put either e ither on o n his mthemcs, or on his lleged experiment experiments, s, or on his fr frequen eq uentt ppel to the uth', nd hi propgndisc moves were ltogether negected) negected ) I suggest tht wht Glileo Glileo did ws to let refuted refuted theories suppot ech other, tht he built in this wy wy new world-view which ws ony loosely (if t ll!) connected with the preceding cosmology (eveyd (eveydy y experience includ inc luded), ed), tht he estblished fke connecons connec ons with the perceptul elements of this cosmolo which re only now being repced by genuine theorie (physiologicl opcs, theo of connu), nd tht wheneve possibe he replced rep lced old ol d fcts by new type of xperience which he simply vd for the puose of supporng Copeicus Remember, incidentlly, tht Glileo's procedure procedure drscly drscl y reduces the content conten t of dmi dmics cs Aristotelin Aristotelin dynmics ws generl theo of chnge comprising omoon, qulittive chnge, generon nd corruption Glieo's dmics nd its successos del with locomotion only, other kinds of moon being pushed side with the promissoy note (due to Democritos) tht ocomoon wil eventully be cpble of comprehending al moon Thus, comprehensive empiricl theoy of moon is replced by much nrower theoy plus metphysics of moon, ust s n empiric experience is replced by n experience tht contins specuve elements This, I suggest, ws the ctu pro roccedure folowed by Glileo Proceeding in this wy he exhibited style style sense ofhumou, n n elscity elscity nd elegnce, nd n wreness of the vuble wekness we knesses es of o f humn thinng, thin ng, which hs never been equled in the histo of science Here is n most inexhusbe
1
GINT ETO
sour source ce o o mateal or metodologcal speculaon and, muc more mpotantly, or te recove o tose eaures o knowledge wc no only nom, but wc also delgt us 1 7
1 few few yeas yeas ago ago a Garder te pitbl pitbl of scesm pblsed acle i Inqi Inqi wt te tle nciece te age Ce of Pal Feyeabend' i inter 19883 Te valat gter seems to ave overled tese and oter passages I am not aganst scence I prase foremost foremost pracones pracones ad net ne t capter) capter) sggest tat teir predres be adopted by pilosopes at I obect to naow mded pilosopical terferece ad a aow-mnded etension of te latest enc fios to all areas of man endeavo i so wat I object objec t to s a aoalsc aoalsc teretaon ad defec defecee of scence scenc e
12 Gae 's med med wr n e errel wel wel r ample ample an be used elmnae e sng amens agans maealsm and pu an d e hilosohical mnd mnd bdy bdy prblem prblem e rs rsp pndng ndng scienc unued ued w wer er.. I es n nlw a a suld suld be pblems ran un uneal appled
Galileo made rogress y changing familiar connecons eteen ords and ords he introduced ne concets) ords and imressions he inoduced ne natural interretaons) y using ne and unfamiliar rincies such as his la of inera and his rincile rincile of universal universa l relavity and y altering the senso core of o f his oseaon oseaon state state ments. His move as the the ish to accommodate the oeican oint of vi vie e oeicanism oeicanism clashes ith some ovious facts it is inconsistent ith lausile and aarenty ell rinciles and it does not t in ith the grammar of a estalished estalished rinciles comonly comonly soen idiom. t does not t in ith the form form oflif of life e that t hat contains these facts rinciles and grammacal rules But neither the rules nor the rinciles nor even the facts are sacrosanct The fault may lie lie ith them and not not ith the idea that the earth earth moves We may therefore change them create ne facts and ne grammacal rules and see hat haens once these rules are availale and have ecome familiar Such an attemt may tae considerale me, and in a sense the Galilean venture is not nished even today But e can already already see that the changes changes ere ere ise ones ones to mae and that it ould ould a ae een foolish to stic ith the Aristotelian form of life to the eclusion eclusion of ever everything ything else els e ith the mind/ mind/ody ody rolem rol em the situaon is eacty eacty the same same We have again oseaons concets general rinciles and gram acal rules hich taen together constute a form of life' that aarenty suorts some vies such as duaism and ecudes the thers such as materialism. say aarently' for the situaon is uch less clear here than it as in the astronomical case) And e ay again roceed in the Galilean manner loo for ne natural 123
4
AAST ETHD
interetaons, new facts, new gaacal ules, new principes which can accoodate materiaism and then compare the oal system systemss materialism an and the new ne w facts, facts, ues, natura natura ntereta ons and principles on the one side duaism and the od forms of life on the other. Thus there is no need to ty, like Smat to show that materialism is compabe with the ideology of common sense. Nor is the suggested suggested procedure as despeate d espeate (Armsong) (Armsong) as it must mus t appear to those who ae unfamilia with conceptua change. The pocedure was commonpace in anquity and it occurs wherever imaginave researchers ske out in new diecons (Eistein and Bohr are recent exampes). 1 So fa the argument was puey intelectual. I ed to show that neithe logc nor experience an limit speculaon and that outstanding researchers often transgessed widey accepted lmits But concepts have not ony a ogical content; they aso have associaons they gve rise to emoons they ae connected with images. These associaons, emoons and images are essena fo the way n whch we reate to our felow human bengs Removng them o changing them in i n a fundamen fundamental tal way may perhaps perha ps make our concepts more objecve', but it often violates impotant social consants. consant s. I t was fo fo this reason that istotle refuse refusedd to abandon an ntuive view of human beings simply because a more physioogica approach showed successes n a lmited domain For him a peson was a socia enty and dened by his o her funcon n the city no matte what atomists o physicians involved n theoy mght say. Similay Similay the Roman Chuch being bein g inteested in souls and not only n asonomcal cks, forbade Galileo to pesent hs badly founded guesses as uths and punished punis hed hm when he violated violated the prohbi prohbion on.. The a of Galeo aises impotant quesons about the oe products of specalsts, such as absact knowedge are supposed to play in socety It is fo this this eason eason that I shal now give give a brief account of this event. event.
Phihi P P I Fo mo dald dald duon duon h d d rf rf d d o my my Phihi Vol Iha I ha 9 and 10 10
13 e Curc a e ime fGalile n n k cser reasn as ned and in pa nw i als cnsired e eical and scial cnsequces fale views. s indicm fGal/e was rainal and n punism and a lack fpepece can mand a risin.
hee wee many tials in the 7th centu. he poceedings stated eithe with accusaons made by pivate paes, wth an ofcial act by a public oce, o with an inqui based on somemes athe vague suspicions. Depending on the locaon, the disbuon of juisdic on and the baance of powe at a pacula me, cimes mght be eamined by secula couts such as the couts of kngs o of fee cies, by Chuch couts, such as the spiitual couts attached to eve episcopate, o by the special couts of the Inqusion. Afte the mdde of the 2th centu the episcopa couts wee geatly aded by the study of Roman aw. Lawyes became so inuena that, even f wholy unained in canon law and theoo, they had a much bette chance of high pefement than a theoogian he inqusitoia pocess emoved safeguads povided by Roman aw and led to some welpublicized ecesses. at has not been publicized to the same etent is that the ecesses of oya o secua couts often matched those f the Inquson. t was a hash and cuel age. 2 By 1600 the his cmpli (mde b e Bc c H Ch. Le A o of he uiio ofhe ile Ag Vl , p. 309 Chpte ix expli he etils f he iisii pcere, he ws i which he diered rm her preres d he es r he ierece C Cut, Iuiio ad Libe Bst 59 Chpers XXV. 2 Chrles He Le, he re liberl hsr, writes O he whle we m e h he secre prs he isiti were less itlerble plces f bde h he episcp pblic s. he eer plc espec hem ws mre me eiheed h h f he jisdcs, wheher i pi r es ewere hh eliet supeis lwed f bses d here were mple es es i i resee, whe he bsc he impeitet ws be brke w' io ofhe Iuiiio i Spai, V 2 New Yk, 906 p 53 Prse cse bee secr cs csi cmmed cimes der he jrsdict f
15
1
AAINST ETOD
Inquision had lost much ofits power and aggressiveness. This was ue especialy in Italy and more pacularly in Venice3 The courts of the Inquision aso examned and punished crmes conceing the producon and the use of nowedge This can be explained by their origin: they were supposed to extermnate y ie complexes consisng of acons, assumpons and tak makng people incned towards cetain beiefs The suprised reader who asks what nowedge has to do with the law shoud remember the many legal social and ancia obstacles nowedge-cas face today Galeowanted his ideas to repace the esng cosmoo but he was forbidden to work towards that aim Today the much more modest wish of creaonists to have their vews taught in schoos side by side with other and compen vews runs into aws setng up a separaon of Church and State Increasing amounts of theoreca and engineerng informaon are kept secret for military reasons and are thereby cut o from inteaonal exchange 5 Commercia interests have the same resicve tendency Thus the discovery of superconducvi in ceramics at (reavely) high temperatures which was the resut of inteaonal colaboraon, sn ed to protecve measures by the erican govement6 Financia arangements can make or break a research progre and an enre profession There are many ways to slence peope apart from forbidding them to speak and a ofthem are being used today The press of knowedge producon and knowledge disibuon was
the Church o that they mght be handed over to the Inquon en Kamen Di Spanh Inqin, unch I 98 . I 7. 3 In 356 the ecular ocal ofVence forbade the Inqutor ofTrvo to h rne ezed h nfoan and toured them on the charge of lferng the rorty of the accued Lea Inqiion in h Ag Vo 273 4. A comrehenve re of one of the al that reuted from the conlct ha been ublhed n S, Vol. 25 982 . 934 any other al foowed 5 It eem that the need for ecre n nuclear matte wa t raed by e ent themelve. Cf. the re and the dument n Sncer R. Wea and erude We-Szlard (ed) L Szir Vion ofh , Cambrdge a. 978, e. Chate 2 Cf al the materal on the Onhemer ca The nventor of the teleco wa forced to ecre a the mlta mance of the convance wa n realzed Cf. Chater 8, fote 24. Reearch team become ve ecreve when aroachng what they thn a Bg ove. Aer l what at tae are atent conutance n ndu money and rha the honour of a Nobel ze For a c cae cf R e So, London 1988 The manulaon of nowledge by the cou dud wth many eamle by eter W ur G Rg, New Yor 1991 6 S Vo 237, 1987, . 476 and 593f An mant te toward ecuvene conted n gnng a of the reearch to the mta
THIRTEEN
17
never te free objecve and purey intellectua excange raonalsts make t out to be Te ial of Galileo was one of many als It ad no speca features except peraps tat Galieo was eated rater midly, despte s lies and attempts at decepon7 But a small clque of intellectuals aded by scandalunwriters succeeded in blowing it up to enomous dmensons so tat wat was basicaly an altercaon between an eert and an instuon defending a wider vew of tgs now looks almost ie a battle between eaven and ell Ts is cldis and also ve unfair towards te many oter vcms of 7t centu jusce It s especaly unfair towards Gordano Bruno, wo was bued but wom scencaly ded tellectuals prefer to forget It s not a conce for umanty but rater paty interests wc play a maor role te Galleo agogapy et us terefore take a closer ook at te matter 8 Te socaled tra of Galieo consisted of two sepaate peedgs o ials Te st occured n 66 e Copecan doctrine was exaed and criced Galieo eceived an ode but e was not punsed e second ial took place n 16333 Hee te Copecan docine was no longe te point at issue Rate wat was consdeed was te queson of wete Galeo ad obeyed te ode gven m in te rst ia o wete e ad deceved te qustos to believig tat te order ad neve been ssued e poceedgs of bot ials were pubised by Antono Favao in Vol 19 of te Naonal dion of Galean materia e suggeson rater popula te 1 9t centu tat te poceedngs contained 7 A exape is Galieos eply to the iquiies of 2 Api 633 auice A Fichiao e GalileoAair, Bekeey ad Los Ageles 989, p 262, the t two
lies The eaco of a adie is chaacteisc: This absud peece ' Geyoa op cit p 49 8. I caot be deied tha pessue goups peoal gieaces ey the fac that Galileo beig oo ifaaed th his ow geius' was usueable (Wesall op cit pp 5, 38) ad the les of paoage played a ipoa ole they o siila cicustaces do at ee ia Howee the tesios betwee aious goups of the Chuch o the oe side ad the deads fo sciec autooy o the othe wee eal eough afe all thei ode successos (shoud the scieces be gie the of ou educaoal isos ad ofsiety a whole o should they be eaed ike ay ohe specia iteest goup) ae sl th us Hee the Chuch did the igh thig: the sceces do not hae the ast wod i huae attes kowledge icluded The ai due peaiig o the ial wee assebled ad aslaed th coets ad a ioduco by Fichiao op ci I shall use his asaos Accous of the ials ad thei pobles ae foud i G de allaa The me of ao Chicago 954, Geoat op ci Redodi op ci ad os ecey i esa
18
AGAIST ETOD
falsed documets ad that the secod ial was therefore a farce seems o loger acceptable 9 The rst trial was preceded by deuciaos ad rumours i which greed ad ey played a part as i may other ials The quisio started to exame the matter Experts (qualcaes) were ordered to gie a opiio about two statemets whch cotaied a more or ess correct accout of the Copeica doctrie 0 Their decsio coceed two poits what would today be called the scc cn of the doctrie ad its el sca mplns. O the rst poit the experts decared the docie to be foolsh ad absurd i phlosophy' or to use mode terms they declared t to be usciec This judgemet was made wthout referece to the faith, or to Church die but was based exclusey o the scec stuao of the me. It was shared by may outstadg scests Tycho Brahe haig bee oe of them) and w c"e whe based o the facts, the theories ad the stadards of 9. One ofhe auhos ofhe suggeson was he Galleo schoa Em ohlwll. s easons, ahe mpessve a he me ae gven n hs D nquitiops G Ga, Ben, 1 870. Accodng o ohwl two dumens ofthe peedngs, daed 25 Feb. 1616 and 26 Feb. 1616 (Fnchao, op. ct., pp l 47 ae mutually conadcto. The t advses Gaeo to teat Copecus as a mathemacal me should he eject he advce, then he s fobdden to menon Copecus n any fo whasoeve. n the second dument Galleo s advsed as ave and medately fobdden (e wthout wang fo hs eacon to menon Copecus. ohw hought the second dument to be a foge Ths seems now eted Cf de Sanllana, Chapte 13. Slman Dae (appendx o Geymonat) devsed a ve ngung hythess to explan the dscepancy. 10 Some ccs used dosyncases n the foulaon as pf of a ac of com pehenson on the pa ofthe expes. But thee was no need fo the nustos to sc closely to the language ofthe auho hey eamned The account ofCpecansm was clea enough whout such teual putansm I I . Fnchao op. ct. p 146. 12 ote that n endeng my judgemens I ely on standads subbed to by many me scens and phlosophe of scence etued to the ealy 1 7h centu, hese champons of aonaty woud have judged Galleo as the Asotelans judged hm then chelson, fo exampe, would have been aghast at Galleos attempt to get nowledge out of an nsment as tle undest as the teeope and uthefd, who was neve t happy aut he heo of elavty, would have puced one of hs chaactesc de emas Savado Lua, an outandng mcobologst who favous hees decdable by clea-cut expementa step[s, woud have elegated the debae o outelds of scence' le solo and wuld have stayed away fom t Slo hine a Bk T Tube, ew Yo, 985, pp 1 15 , 1 9). o what Galeo suggesed was no less han to egad as e a heo whch had only analoges n favou and whch sueed fom numeous dcules. And he made hs suggeson n publc whle even today t s a deadly sn fo a scenst to addess he publc befoe havng consulted hs pee (eample n . Pceng,
TITEEN
1
the me Compared with those facts theories and standards the idea of the moon of the earth was as absurd as were Vekovsky's ideas when compared wth the facts theories and standards of the fes A mode scenst reay has no choice in ths matter. He cannot clng to his own very strct standards and at the same e praise Galieo for defending Copeicus. He must either agree wth the rst part of the judgement of the Church eperts or admit that standards, facts and laws never decide a case and that an unfounded, opaque and incoherent docine can be presented as a fundamental uth Only few admirers of Gaeo have an nkling of this rather comple situaon The situaon becomes even more comple when we consder that the Copecans changed not ony views but also standards for udging views Aristoteians, n this respect not at all unlike mode epidemiolosts, molecular biolosts and empirical' socolosts who insist either on the eamnaon ofarge stascal sampes or on clearcut eperimenta steps' n Lurias sense, demanded song emprical support whle the Gaeans were content wth far reaching, unsupported and paray refuted theories 3 I do not cricize them for that; on the conary I favour Nels Bohr's ths is not crazy enough' I merely want to revea the conadcon in the acons of those who praise Galieo and condemn the Church but become as sict as the Church was at Galeo's me when tung to the work of ther contemporaries. On the second point, the sial (ethical implcaons, the eperts declared the Copecan docine to be foally hereca' This means t conadcted Holy Scripture as nterpreted by the Church, and it did so in fu awareness of the situaon, not inadvertently (that woud be material' heresy nsnts n nesy: te se f te gnec ne Soal Si of Sce V 1 98 . 63 l ts s relzed neter by rgesse' .e. scency nclned nces f te c n by scensts s te dscssn f te l f le cs n dem wd t ny ltte eln t te re wd we nd le nbt. Frte gments n tt nt re fnd n ter 9 f Farell o Reason nd ter 19 bew 3. s ndcted n te 8 fte lles lw f ner ws n cnct t te ecn s wel s te Kelen etment f lnet mn lle ed f ftre ccmmdns Tt ws sensble tng t d bt nt n eeent wt se stndds fs me nd ftdy. Tdy sml cls between teecn nd emcs crs n te ed fedeml Tee e teecl esns t exect tt Xys nd te fs f rclte rdn cnstte cnces dwn t te smllest dse ny edemlgsts demnd emcl f wee tg t s cle tt eents wen ccrng belw cen resld f feency cnnt be detected n tt wy.
130
AAIS MEOD
The second point rests on a series of assumpons, among them the assumpon that Scripture is an important bounda condion of human existence and, therefore, of research The assumpon was shared by all geat sciensts, Copeicus, Kepler and Newton among them According to Newton nowledge ows from wo sources the word of God the Bble - and the wors of God Nature and he postulated divine inteenons n the planeta system, as we have seen 1 4 The Roman Church in addion claimed to possess the exclusive rights of exploring, interpreng and applying Holy Scripture Lay people, accordng to the teaching of the Church had neither the nowledge nor the authority to tamper with Scripture and they were forbidden to do so. Ths comment, whose rigidity was a result of the new Tridenne Spirit, 5 should not surprise anyone familiar with the habits of powerful instuons The atude of the Aerican Medical Associaon towards lay praconers is as rigd as the atude of the Church was towards lay interpreters - and it has the blessing of the law Experts, or ignoramuses having acquired the formal insignia of experse, always tried and often succeeded in securing for themselves exclusive rights in specia domains Any cricism of the rigdity of the Roman Church applies also to is mode scienc and scienceconnected successors Tuing now from the form and the administrave backing of the obecon to its content we noce that it deals with a subect that is gaining increasing importance in our own mes the quality of human estence. Heresy, dened in a wide sense, meant a deviaon from acons, atudes and ideas that guarantee a wellrounded and sanced life Such a deviaon might be, and occasonally was, encouraged by scienc research Hence, it became necessa to examine the herecal implicaons of scienc developments Two ideas are contained in this atude irst it is assumed that the quality oflife can be dened independently of science, that it may clash with demands which sciensts regard as natural ingediens of their acvity and that science mus be changed accordingly Secondly, it is assumed that Holy Scripture as interpreted by the Holy Roman Church adumbrates a correct account of a well rounded and sanced ife 4. Chpte 5 fooot 4 See lso he etue fote 6 o Chpe 4 Accong to lleo lete o Duchess Chsn) he e of he wo souces gs bck to euln aron E Es e.) 18 5 Fo he exct wong see DgeSchnmee Enhidion Symlom, 36th eo Febug 976 pp 365f.
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The second assupon can e reected wthout denying that the Bile is vasty richer in lessons for huani than anyhing that ght ever coe out of the sciences Scienc resus and the scienc ethos if there is such a thing) are siply t a foundaon for a lfe worth living Many scienss agree wth ths udgeen 1 6 They agree that the quai of life can e dened independenty of science - which is the rst part ofthe rs assupon At the e of Galileo there existed an instuon - the Roan Church - watching over this quai in its own parcuar way We ust concude tha the second point - Copeicus eing forally hereca - was connected with ideas that are urgenty needed today The Church was on the right ack But was it perhaps staken in reecng scienc opinons inconsisent with its idea of a Good Life n Chaper 3 argued that knowledge needs a purai of ideas, that welestashed theories 6. Ths Korad Lor hs trsg f somwhat sca bk DieAh Tonn Zili shh Mch, 984 (t pblshd 973) p 70 wts Th oos blf that oly what ca b raoaly gaspd or v what ca b provd a scc way costts ld kowdg of makd h dsos cosqcs t prompts th "cly lghtd yogr grao to scard th mms s of kowldg ad wsdom that a cotad th ados of vry act clt ad th tachgs of th gat wod lgos Whov thks that l ths s wthot scac atally sccmbs to aoth, qay cos mstak, vg th covcto that c s ab, a mattr of co, to cat fom othg, ad a aoal way, a clt wth al ts gts' a smlar v J Ndham, ato ad paathor of a gat hstory of Chs scc ad tcholo, spas of scc opm, mag by t a bss to th sg of oth' Time he Rrhing R, Notgham, 986. Raoasm', wrts Pt Mdawar ie o a YoungSi, Nw Yok, 979 p l 0 ) falls sho of aswg th may smpl ad chdlk qsos opl lk to sk; qsos abot ogs ad pss sch as a oft cotmptosy dsmssd oqsos, o psdoqsos, athogh opl dstad thm claly ogh ad log to hav a asw Ths a tllctal pas that aoalsts lk bad physcas cofotd by almts thy caot dagos o c a apt to dsmss as "magao' Th cast ad most pcptv statmt s fod Jacqs Mood, hance and Necsi Nw Yok, 972, p 70 (txt bckts fom p 69) Cold ad ast,' wrts Mood, prosg o xplaao bt mposg a cc cao of all oth sptal fa, th da that obcv owldg s th oly athc soc of th was ot of a kd to allay aty bt aggravatd t stad By a sgl sok t camd to swp away th ados of hdds of thosads of yas, whch had bcom o wth hma at tsl t wrot a d to th act amst covat btw ma ad at, lavg othg plac of that prcos bod bt a aos qst a fo vs of sotd Wth othg to commd t bt a ca prta arogac, how cold sch a da w accptac? t dd ot; t sll h ot t has howv commadd coo; bt that t dd oly bcas of pgos w of prfoac
13
AGANS EHO
are never stong enogh to termnate the estence o f ateave approaches, an that a efence of sch ateaves, beng almost the ony way of scovering the erors of hghy respecte an comprehensive points of view, s reqre even by a narow phosophy sch as empiricism Now ft shol t ot that it is also reqire on ethcal gons, then we have two reasons instea of one rather than a conict wth science Beses, the Chrch, an by ths I mean ts most otstanng spokesmen, was mch more moest than that. It i not say: what conacts the Bible as inteprete by s mst go, no matter how song the scienc reasons n its favor. A th spporte by scenc reasoning was not pshe ase. It was se to revise the intepretaon of Bible passages apparently inconsistent with it There are many Bble passages which seem to sggest a at eath. Yet Chrch ocne accepte the spherica earth as a matter of corse On the other han the Chrch was not reay to change jst becase someboy ha proce some vage gesses It wante poof scienc proof in scienc matters Here t acte no erenty from moe scienc instons niversies, schoos an even research nsttes in varios cones sally wait a long me before they ncoporate new eas into their cricla. rofessor Stanley Goberg has escribe the staon i the case of the special theo ofrelavity.) Bt there was as yet no convincing proof of the Copecan ie. Hence Galleo was avise to teach Copecs s ypoess; he was forbien to teach t s . Ths isncon has srvve nl toay. Bt while the Chrch was prepare to amit that some theories might be te an even that Copecs' might be te, gven sfcient evience, 7 there are a wdely dscussed letter whch ardal Robeo Bellao master of cooersal quesos at the olego Romao wrote o 2 Ar 6 5 to Paolo Atoo Foscar a aelte mok from Naes who had qured about the reaty of the oeca sysem we d the folowg assage Fcharo o ct 68): fthere were a e demostrao tha the su s at the ceter ofthe word ad the eah the thrd heae ad tha the su ds o crce the eah but he eah crcles the su the oe woud hae o reed wth grea care exag the Scrtures raher hat e no unand h han ha ha that aear coa and onraed ifae. But wl o beee that here s such a demostrao ul s show me Nor s t he same o demosae hat by suosg the su o be a the ceer ad the eah heae oe ca sae he aearaces ad to demosate that th the su s a he ceer ad the eah heae; for I beeve the rst demosao may be aalable but I have e grea doubts abou the secod ad case of doub we mus ot abado the Holy Scrure as ereed by the Holy Fahers hs iai on he ican Oinion, Fcharo o c 70
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nw many sciensts, esecially in high enegy hysics wh view all theies as insuments f edicn and eject uthtalk as being metahysical and seculave Their reasn is that the devices they use are s bviusly designed f calculang urses and that therecal araches s clealy deend n cnsideans f elegance and easy alicabiity that the genealizan seems t make gd sense Besides the fal reres farmans' ften die frm thse f the basic rinciles many theies ae st stes twads a new int fview which at sme futue me may yield them as arximans and a diect infeence frm they t eality is therefe rathe naive ! All ts was knwn t 16th and 1 7th centuy sciensts Only a few asnmers thught f deferents and eicycles as eal ads in the sky mst regaded them as ads n aer which might aid calculan but which had n cunterat in eality The eican int f view was widely intereted in the same way - as an interesng, nvel and rathe ecient mdel he huch reusted bth fr scienc and f ethical easns that Galile accet ts interetan nsideing the dicules the mdel faced when egaded as a descin f eality, we must admit that [l]gic was n the side f Bellamine and nt n the side f Galile, as the histrian f science and hysical chemist Piee Duhem wte in an inteesng essay 19 T sum u: the judgement fthe huch exerts was sciencaly crect and had the right scial intenn t tect ele fm the machinans f secialists t wanted t rtect ele fm being cuted by a naw idelgy that might wk in esicted dmains but was incaable f sustaining a hanius life A evisin f the judgement might win the huch sme friends amng sciensts but wuld seveely imai its funcn as a esee f imrtant human and suehuman values2 es . 85f ieo ddresses precsel hese points. e grees ht if he Copeicn sonomers re not more hn ninet percent rght he m e dismissed ut dds tt if ll ht is produced philosophers nd sonomers on he opposite side is shown to e mostl flse nd wholl inconsequenl hen he oher side should not e disrged nor deemed prdoc so s to hin ht it could never e clerl proved reserch should e peited even if demonsons re not et ville Ths does not conict wit Bellinos suggesons; it did conict nd to cein ten sll does conict wih he ttude of mn me reserch instuons 18 More on his int in n Cwright o he Las ofPhysi Lie Oford
198 3 19 To Se he Ph Chicgo 1963 p 78. 2 After some ppren williness to consider he mter (cf he ddre of ope on ul on he centen of insteins irh pulished n piloe in ul
Crdinl ouprd (ed) Gali Ga/i Toar a Rol of5 Yea ofDebae
134
AAINST METHOD
Ptburgh, 987) Crd Joseph Rger, who hods poso sm to tht oe hed y Bee, fouted the pobem wy tht woud mke revso of the judgemet hros d poess. Cf. hs tk of Mh 990, py repoed Sao Mh 990, pp. As wesses the Cdn quoed st Bh (beng meey mtte of ovenee the se hoe betwee geensm nd heesm ot ovee the p d egous en of the eh), C. F von Wesker (eo eds dey to the tom omb) d mysef (the hpe hedg of the pesent hpte). I ommeted o the speeh o eews, Sao, My 990, pp 4 d La Rubblica 4 Juy , p 0.
14 Galle s nqures e n a smal par fe scale Ccan Rlun Ang e ranng elens makes sl mre l recncle e elmen wfamlarprncpl fe aluan.
Galilo was not th on scinst nold in th rfo of phsics, asonom and cosmolo. Nthr dd h da with th who ara of asonom. For xampl, h nr studid th moon of th plants in as much dtai as did Copicus and Kplr and h probab nr rad th mor tchnica pats of Copicus gat work That was not unusua Thn as now knowldg was subdidd into spciais; an xprt in on ld rarl was also an xprt anothr and distant d nd thn as now scinsts with wid dirg ing philosophis coud and did commnt on nw suggsons and dopmnts. Tcho Brah was an outstanding asonomr; his obsraons contributd to th downfall of gnral accptd ws. H nocd th impotanc of Copicus' cosmolo t h rtaind th unmod ath, on phsica as wll a on thological gounds. Copicus was a faithful Chrisan and a good rstotlian; h id to rstor cnd crcuar moon to th prominnc it onc had, postulatd a mong ath, rarrangd th planta orbits and ga absout alus for thir diamtrs. Th asonomrs surrounding Mlanchthon and his ducaona rfom accptd and praisd th rst pat of his achimnt, but (with a ingl xcpon Rhcus) ithr disrgardd or cricizd, or rintrtd (siandr!) th scond nd th oftn id to ansfr opicus' mathmacal modls to th Ptolmaic sstm atlin, Kplr's tachr, rgardd comts as solid bodis and d alulang th orbit of on of thm His (incorrct) rsut mad apt th Copican arrangmnt of th planta orbits (it s etls d literre R. Wes The Mechtho Crcle Rhecus d the Witteberg Itereto o the Coc Theo' Ii Vol 66, 97
6
135
13
AGANS MHOD
inuncd Kplr) Matlin rpctd ritotl but rgardd matmacal corrc and armony a ign of pyical trut Galilo' approac ad it own idioyncrai it wa mor complx, mor conctural partly adaptd to t gratr rol tological conidraon playd in Italy, partly dtrmind by t law of rtoric or patronag Many dirnt pronali, profion and group guidd by dirnt blif and ubctd to dirnt conaint conibutd to t proc tat i now bing dcribd, omwat ummariy, a t Copican Rvoluon' I aid at t bginning ti proc wa not a imp ting but conitd of dvopmnt in a varity of ubct, among tm t folowing comology; pyic; atronomy; t caculaon of atronomical tabl; opc; pitmology; and tology I draw t dincon not in ordr to b prci' but bcau ty rct actualy ng ubdiviion of rarc Pyic, for xamp, wa a gnral tory of motion tat dcribd cang witout rfrnc to t circumtanc undr wic it currd It comprid locomoon, t growt of plant and anima wll a t anion ofknowldg from a wi tacr to an ignorant pupil ritotl' Pys and t many mdiaval commntari on it giv u an ida of t problm tratd and t oluon propod Comology dcribd t tructur of t univr and t pcial moon tat ar found in it baic law of pys in t n ut xplaind wa tat a moon witout motor com to a tandll t natura' ituaon of a body i rt (ti includ lack of qualitav cang) T natural' moon of csml wr to tat occurrd witout nocabl intrfrnc; xampl ar t upward moon of r and t downward motion of ton ritotl' n e Hes and t many mdiava commntari on it giv u an ida of t probm and t viw dicud in ti domain T book I ut mnond wr for advancd tudi only Introductory txt omittd problm and altav uggon and concnatd on t bar bon of t ida tn d On of t mot popuar introductory txt ofcomoogy, Sacroboco' sper, containd a ktc of t world, and dcribd t main Qr witout giving t dtail of tir moon - t rt i ilnc 2 Sl, 2 C. Ly odyke (ed.), The Sphe o Saboco and I ommao,
Ccago, 949. e eeme ad e moo ae bey metoed e cae ogee w a me agume aou o e umoved ea e ea iuaed e cete ( ow eae by oca agume, cudg e ac a e coeao ave e ame ze, o mate wee e day otao u em) ad ucud a medo moeu veu ccumeetam aced. a a medo movu, go aced, uod o mobie euiu ( 85 ua, deee
FURN
137
t was used as a basis for rather advanced crical coments down to alileo's own me. hysics and cosmoloy claimed to make ue statements Theoloy which also claimed to make ue statements was regarded as a bouda condion for research in these elds though the strength of this requirement and ofits instuonal bacing varied in e and with the locaon t was never a necessa bounda condion for asonomy which deat with the moons of the stars but without claiming uth for its models Astronomers were interested in models that might correspond to the actual arrangement of the planets but they were not restricted to them Handbooks of astronomy such as tolemy's handbook and the various popularizaons based on it contained detailed asonomical modes preceded by sketchy cosmological introducons As far as these introducons were conceed, there ested ony one cosmoloyAristotle's. Some ofthe handbooks also contained tables Tables were a further step away from reality'. They not only used hypotheses', ie models that might not reect the sucture of reality, they also used appromaons But an asonomer's appromaons did not always correspond to the excellence of his models Advanced' from our standpoint) models might be combined with crude appromaons and thus give worse tables than their older countearts The separaon between physics and cosmoloy on the one side and asonomy on the other was not only a practical fact; it also had a rm philosophical backing According to Arstotle 4 mathemacs does ot dea with real things but contains abstracons There ests therefore an essenal dierence between physical subects such as physics, cosmoloy, biolo and psycholo and mathemacal subects such as optics and astronomy. n the encyclopaedias of the early Middle Ages the separaon was a mater of course Optical tetbooks ony rarely dealt with asonomical maters 5 Astronomy used basic opcal laws such as the law of linear propagaon, but the more complicated parts of opcal theo were d eicycle re meoed i the forth chpter ogether with the mirclous ture o he olr eclipse ccompyig Chris deth. 3 The exmpe of Ptolemyopeics is eed by Ste Bbb Jr i Is . 68 September 177, especilly p. 432 4 e, Bk ii Chpter 2 Physi, Bk ii Chpter 2 For ccot d deece f Aristote's theo of mthemcs c. Chpter 8 of m Farell o Reon 5. As exmpe I meo oh Pechm's opcs (qoted from Dvid Lidberg (ed. John Pecham and he Sce ofi, Mdiso, 170) soomicl mtte cr here o pges 53 (m illsio d the orthwrd dispcemet of the s d he ed st, eplied b v er the horizo 2 (illo of the
18
AGANS MHOD
ot we kow The same s ue of epistemoogy Galieos argumets (ad the argumets of Copeicus o whch they are based) brought epistemology back ito sciece (the same happeed may years later, coeco wth the quatum theo). Now is it to be expected that a coleco of relavey depedet subects, research sateges, argumets ad opiios such as the oe just meoed wl develop a uform way? Ca we realy assume that al the physcists cosmologsts, theoogas ad philosophers who reacted to the Copeica doce were guided by the same moves ad reasos ad that these reasos were ot oy accepted by them, but were also regarded as beg bdg for ay sciest eterg the scee? The deas of a idivdua sciest such as Este may show a certa coherece 6 ad this coherece may be reected his stadards ad his theorzg Coherece is to be expected totaltara surroudigs that gude research either by aws by peer pressure or by acia machiaos ut the asoomers at the me of Copecus ad after did ot ve i such surroudgs they ved at a me of dissesio wars ad geera upheava at a me whe oe city (Veice for example, ad the ces uder its jursdco) woud be safe for a progressve scest whe aother (such as Rome, or Florece) oered cosiderable dagers ad whe the ideas of a sigle idvdual ofte faced groups of scests ot i agreemet wth his moomaia To show ths let us ook at two asoomers who parcipated i the deveopmet: Copecus hmself ad Maestl Kepers teacher Copecus wated to reform astroomy He explaed hs msgvgs ad the ways i which he ed to overcome them He wrote ta exlaed y ueveee of he otag uface whch elect he ul), 218 (moy to detee he ze of he ta fm he aearace), 233 (ta aea o e male ha they acually ae), 22 (hey ae daced oward the oh at he horzo, ad he moe o, he geae the dtace fom he meda) 6. he cae of te how ha eve th modet aumo goe much fa e recommeded a ooe ootum a the et eeach ae (cf. the uoao he ex o foooe 6 of he Ioduco) ad he waed ha a good oke (uch a the codeao eadg to he ecal theo of eavy) houd o e eeaed oo ofe Ph Frak, Einein L and , Lodo, 1 96, . 261 7. maol ed. . Roe, ree in Tre 3d edo, New Yok 97 aao aly chaged accodace wh F Ka, Coecu Reoveu ooqia ina Il ad Peedg of he Jo Symoum of the !AU ad he UHPS, o, 973, 9. I wha folow I ha ao ue Ka, Coecu Reoveu II', ct.
FORN
3
The planeta theoes of Ptolemaics and most other asonome . . . seemed . to present no small diculty. For these theoes were not adequate unless certain equants were also conceved it then appeared that a planet moved with unfo velity nether along ts own deferent nor relave to an actual cene. . . Having become aware of these defects often considered whether there could perhaps be found a more reasonabe aangement of circles from which eve apparent inequality could be derived and which eveg would move unformly about its proper cene as the le of accomplished moon requires . . .
The crique o Copecus conces the olowng model that was used or caculang the longitudes oMarsJupiter and Satu The panet P moves on a small circe the epicycle whose cene is ocated n a larger circle the deerent The cene o the epicycle proceeds with constant angular velocity with respect to E the equant pont The planet is obseed rom the earth T E and T are on opposite sides o the cene o the deerent having the same distance rom it Copeicus does not queson the empirical adequacy o the mode On the cona he admits that the paneta theories o the Ptolemaeans and others are consistent with the numerical data' 8 or does he beieve that these data are in need o correcon Instead ntroducing new obseaons he emphases that 8 Roe, o ct, 59
140
AGAINS MHOD
we must folow in their [the ancent reeks] footsteps and hod fast to their obseaons bequeathed to us ike an etance And if anyone on the contra thinks that the ancients are untstworthy in this regard surey the gates of ths art are cosed to hm. 9
Neither new obseaons nor the inablity of tolemy to take care of what was known to hm are the reason for Copeicus discomfo The diculty he perceives lies elsewhere In hs account Copeicus disnguishes between absolute moons and apparent moons The second inequality of planeta moon, i.e. the fact that a planet may run ahead in its path and then reverse its direcon, is apparent - it must be reduced to other moons. According to Copeicus these other moons are moons on cened circles with a constant angular velocity around the cene tolemy violates the condion he uses equants. Equants explan apparent moons not by ue moons but again by apparent moons where the planet moves with uniform velocity neither along its own deferent, nor relave to an actual cene . . . .' For Copeicus (and for many other asonomers) real moon is a circular moon around a cene with constant anlar velity. 1 0 Copecus removes excene and equant and replaces them by epicycles 1 In the tolemaic scheme each planet has now three epicycles the old epicycle and two further epicycles for replacng the ecenc and the equant In order to avoid this accumulaon of epicycles (which occasion ally pushed the planets far out into space) Copeicus looks for a dierent explanaon of the second inequality He is helped by the fact that the second inequality agrees with the posion of the sun 2 It can therefore be intereted as an apparent moon created by a real (and, of course, circular) moon on pa of the earth. The argument as reconsucted so far (after Kra) contains two 9 LeAgains W, Rose, op ct, p 99 10 rmus Reold ote o te e pe o s peol copy o
Rluionibus: A Asnomim ous e ql el qlib e bus mposius Quoted rom es, e elcto Crce, op ct, p 16 l l s s e o te ommaolus s m wor e ses ecec deerets Oy te eut repced by epcle s lbero rom te et (rms Reold), lso lr teo, rey mpressed me o Co cus dmre wo pd o eo to s e cosmolo d te moo o te eh es, e elcto Crce, op ct pp 1 1 1 2 e me su Copecs Kepler eects redco to te e s d terey sethes e Coc emet
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elements a purely formal element and a reality asseron Formally t is requested that any perodic moon be reduced to centred circular moons. The request is connected with the assumpon that inequalies are apparent while circular moons alone are real Let us call this e real assumpn But Copeicus also discovered that hs procedure allowed him to incorporate eve planeta path into a system, containing the large crce, the circle of the earth as an absoute measure. Al these phenomena', Copecus writes in his main work, 1 are connected wth one another in a most nobe way as if by a golden chain, and each panet with ts posion and order is a wiess that the earth moves while we, who live on the terrestrial globe, failing to recognize its moon, ascribe al sorts of moons to the planets.' t is this inner connectedness of all parts of the planeta system that conviced Copecus of the reality of the moon of the earth call this e secnd real assumpn The rst reality assumpon was part of the Platonic adon; Aristole gave it a physical basis. The second reality assumpon conicted wth Arisoelian physics and cosmology. Aristole had already cricized an earler (Pythagorean) version ofit mathemacal harmonies, which are absacons, reect truth only if they agree with welconrmed physcal priciples This is a reasonable request it was used in our o centu to reject Schroedingers interpretaon ofwave mechanics. It is reasonabe especially for those thiners who regard mathemacs as an aulia science that may describe but cannot constute physical processes. It is unreasonabe fr a Plaonst or a Pythagorean The resulng clash between two interpretaons of the nature of mathemacal satemens played an importan role in the Copecan Revoluon Copeicus strengthened the second reality assumpon by referring o adions such as the Hermec adion and the idea of the exceponal role of the sun 4 and by showig how t coud be reconciled with the phenomena He made two assumpons Firs, that the moon of a body is apprpriate to its shape The earth s spherical, hence is moon mus be circular Secondly, obecs such as stone say with the ody (the earth) from which they were 13 De Rol., Peface o Poe Pau Ka aume a Coecu dcoveed aoy e coue of aem o emove e eua ad oy ae ued o a udamea agme favou of a ea moo of e ea. 1 Te ae ad e mdde ad e u' wa o ew I e ode aoomy e wa deed e mdde of e ae wi Ma e ad Sau adg above ad Veu, Mecu ad e moo beow I ao ued e ae e ee a moo wa mioed e moo ofa ae (e moo eceed). C. e.g. Macob, Somnium Sipioni
14
AGANS MOD
separated ence te alng stone stays cose to te tower Accordng to Arstote te natura moon o obects, ie te upward moon o re and te downward moon o stones, was determied by te suctue o space cena symmey) According to Cope ncus it is determined by te disibuon o matteCopecus saves penomena suc as te ree a o eavy bodies but povides neite independnt aguments no sict aws tat coud ead to a detaed comparson His pocedue is c Ts does not mean tat it is bad; it only means tat it cannot be econced wt te leading metodoogies o today My second example is Micael Maestin Kepes teace Maestn was an ee asonome and is udgement was geneay espected He only eluctanty abandoned te Ptoemaic disibu on o te spees but e was orced to do so by cicumstances beyond s cono ar as we can see, te circumstances wee, rst te nova o 1572. Maestin obseed it measured is paaax and put it beyond te spee o te moon nto te spee o te xed stars Te rst pa beyond te moon) olowed or Maestln om te mssng paalax te second pa ed stars) om te absence o any pope moon According to Copeicus wose ideas Maestln used at tis pont, a panet moves moe sowy te greate is ditance om te sun Observing te canges o coour and brgess Maestln and Tyco wo saw te new star on te way to s acemcal laboato) nerred tat te region above te moon cannot be witout cange as Arstote ad assumed Howeve, it woud be as to conclude tat Maestn and Tyco) egaded te nova as a blow aganst te perpatec plosopy Many Cuc people Teodore Beza among tem, eded te penomenon as a etu o te star o Betleem, ie as a supeatual event Tyco tougt ts comparson too modest; ere e said is te greatest mracle snce te beginning o te wold compaable at least to Josuas stoppng o te sun Tis means tat as a as Tyco was conceed macles reuted te idea o te aun o te aws o I . n ha follos I am usin the dsaon by RA Jaell, e L and Stc W ofthe Tbing Asn ichl lin, oonto, 1972 ell RS esan Mchael Maestlins Adoon of the Cocan heo Colu Ci , Ossilinem, I 97, . 3 I 6. Jaell, o. cit, 1 08. I 7 Cf the eatue in P Khe, Sce and Relin in Elethan Engnd, Ne Yo 969 pp 74f fotes 2 and 13 Cf. aso Vol. Chapte ofLynn hodie A ofa and tal S, Ne Yo 1 94 1 8 p 48.
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naure (which was an istotelian idea), they did not reute spec laws. Maestlin, on the other hand, being perhaps more scepcal abou miracles, may indeed have regarded the case as a blow against ristotle The net ueson is how serious a blow it was or him. The idea o a permanent heaven was par o cosmolo and contained the special hypothesis o a th elemen The alsehood o ths hypothesis impaired neither the remaining laws o moon nor the tower argument. Both Claus and Tycho accepted a changing heaven 9 but sll used the ower argument to eclude the moon o the earth. I Maestlins doubts reached urther then this was due either to an idiosyncrac interpretaon o the istotelian dines, or to personal inclinaons towards a nonristotelian worldew It seems that we must assume the later The net decisive event on Maestlins jouey towards Copecus was the comet o 577 gain Maestlin, prompted by numerous obsevaons, puts the comet into the superlunar region. 20 The idea thathis region is ree rom change has now dentely been dropped Maestin also ied to determine the ajecto o the comet He ound it to be mong in the path o Venus as descrbed in Book 6, Chapter 2 o R/utnbus. Somewhat hesiangly he now accepts the Copecan ordering o the spheres. But, so he adds, he was orced to do so by eeme necessity. 2 This eeme necessity arises only when geomeical considera ons are given the orce o cosmological arguments Many years later Galileo cauoned against this way o reasoning: rainbows, he said, canno be caught by iangulaon. Maestin had no such doubts He acceped the tradional disncon between physics and asonomy and idened astronomy with mathemacs: Copecus wrote his enre book not as a physicis, bu as an asonomer is his coment on the margin o his copy o Rlutnbus He then interpreed he results o mathemacal arguments by using the second reality assumpon. This means that he did not ecme an ristotelian resisance against such an inerpretaon, he acted as i such a resisance dd nt st This argument, he wrote in his marginal oes 4 is wholly in accord with reason. Such is the arrangemen o . o Clavu c commea o Sacoboco pere, 193 edio, pp 210£ C alo Weall, o c, . 20 Jaell o c p 112 21 Ibid., 117 22. Ibid, 20 23 Wea o c . 2. Ibid.
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AGAINS MHOD
this enre immense mna that it permits surer demonsaons indeed the enre universe revolves in such a way that nothing can be transposed without confusion of its [parts] and hence, by means of these surer demonstraons] al the phenomena of moon can be demonstrated most exacty for nothing untng curs in the course of their orbits Kepler too became a Copeican because of this harmony and because of the comet, the interesng fact being that Maestins calculaons of the path of the comet contain serious mistakes it did n move in the orbit ofVenus Now let us compare these events and the situaons in which they cur with some once popular philosophies of science. We noce at once that none of these philosophies considers all the disciplines that conibuted to the debate Astronomy is in the centre. A raonal reconsucon of the developments in this area is thought to be a raonal reconsucon of the Copeican Revoluon itself. The role of physics (the tower argument) the fact that theolo occasionay formed a song boundary condion (cf Tychos reacon to his nova and to the idea of the moon of the earth) and the role of different mathemacal philosophies shows that this cannot possibly be ue. This fatal incompleteness is the rst and most fundamental objecon against all reconsucons that have been oered They sll depend on the (posivisc) prejudice that obseaons alone decide a case and that they can judge a theory all by themselves without any help (or hindrance) from alteaves metaphysical alteaves incuded Moreover, they even fail in the narrow domain they have chosen for reconsucon astronomy To show this, let us consider the following accounts: Nae empm: the Middle Ages read the Bibe and never
looked at the sky Then people suddenly ooked upwards and found that the world was dierent from the opinion of the schoos. This account has disappeared from asonomy - but its analogue survives in other areas (for example in some parts of the history of medicine) The main argument against it is that Aristote was an arch empiricist and that Ptolemy used carefuly collected data 25 2 scaed empcsm new obseaons forced asonomers
to modi an already empirical docine.
2 Caly a b cottd by RR No, e me ofudi Po, almo, 977 Nwto ow at may o Ptomy data e nufud o t i ml Fo i opc ko o a log m
FORN
14
This certainy is not e fo Copeics and his followers in the 1th cent As we have seen, Copecs thoght the Ptolemaic system to be pcal quae - he cricied it fo erecal reasns And his obseaons' ae essenally those of Ptoemy, as he says himself Mode comparisons of Copeican and Ptolemaic pedicons with the facts', ie with 1 9th and 20thcent calclaons, show, fthermoe, that empiical pedicons were not impoved and actally become worse when the compeng systems are resicted to the same nmber of parameters2 The only new obseaons made wee those ofTycho Brahe - bt they already ed beyond Copeics to Kepler Galileo's obsea ons beong to cosmolo, not to asonomy They lend plasibili to some of Copecs' anal A cmpeng proof ofthe moon of the earth did not emerge, however, fo the Galilean obseaons cold also be accommodated by the Tychonian system 3 alscansm new obseaons refted impoant assmp ons of the old asonomy and led to the invenon of a new one This is not correct for Copeics and the domain of asonomy (see above, comments on 2) The reftaon' of the immtabili of the heavens was neither compeling nor decisive fo the problem of the moon of the eath Besides, the idea of the moon of the earth was in big oble or, if yo wll, reted' t cold svive ony if it was eated th kndness Bt if cold be eated th kndness, then so cold the olde stem We see here ve clearly how misgided it is to y redcing the process Copecan Revolon' to a single pincipe, sch as the principle of fasicaon Fasicaons played a roe st as new obseaons played a role Bt both were imbedded in a compex patte of events which contained tendencies, attdes, and consideraons of an enrey dierent natre 4 Cnalsm the old asonomy became more and more complicated so it was in the end replaced by a simpler theo t is this assmpon that ed to the mocng remark of the epicyclical 2. Stley bb Acccy of Plety eoes Pclly fo Ms Is
Se. 977, . 46 Cf. lso te elie cle of Dee de Soll Pce Co Coeics' i M Clge (ed) il Probls ofhe o ofSce, Mdiso 959, . 97; NR. so No. 5 , 1 960, . 1 0 wel s Owe Gigec Csi s Aetec i te Coeic Reolo' i ee (ed) Vs in Asno, Vo. 17, 1974. Gigec come te of Stoee Stdi Mesi Mgi and Og d ds of tem beet by eos of oly te sme mitde (tog ot of te me disbon log te eclic).
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AGAINS MOD
degeneraon. The theo overloo the fact that the Copecan scheme has aot as many crcles as the Ptolemac one 5 e e fs: asonomy was n a crss. The crss led to a revolon whch roght aot the mph of the Copecan system. The answer here s the same as nder 2: pl there was no crss and no crss was resolved. A crss dd cr n cosmolo, t only er the dea of the moon of the earth receved a seros hearng. The many complants aot the nexacess of asonomcal predcons that preceded Copecs (Regomontans, for example) crczed the lack of precse nal condons and accrate tales, no asc theo, and sch a crcsm would have een qte njst, as the later examnaon of these theores shows 28
27. he ede shld cst the ve stcve dims de Sll's edi f Glie's Dialo Chicg, 96. 28 Cf te 26 bve
5 e uls baned s sues ablng e dnn bewe a n f dce and a cn f juscan ns and fs bsanal s and eecal es Nne fe dsnns plays a le n scc p. Aps ence wu e dsasus cnsequc P s cl analsmls e same ens
et us now use the materal of the receding secons to throw light on the followng features of contemora emircism () the disncons between a contet of discove and a contet of juscaon nos and facts, obseaonal tes and theorecal tes (2) Poer's crca' raonaism (3) the robem of incommensurabilty The ast robem wl ead us back to the roblem of raona and order vs anarchsm whch is the man oc of this essay One of the objecons which may be raised aganst my attemt to draw methodological concusions from historca eamles is that t confounds two contets whch are essenaly disnct a contet of discove, and a contet of juscaon. Dsce may be rraonal and need not follow any recognized method Jusn, on the other hand, or to use the Holy Word of a derent school csm stars only athe discoveres have been made and t roceeds an orderly way It is one thng,' writes Herbert Feg, to reace the historical orgins, the sychologcal genesis and develoment the socioolicaeconomic condions for the accetance rejecon ofscienc theores and it is qute another thng to rovide a logcal reconsrucon of the concetual sucture and of the tesng of scienc theores' These are ndeed two dierent n esecally as they are done by two derent dscpn (histo of science hilosohy of science) which are qute jealous of their indeen dence But the queson s not wha discons a ferle mnd can I e Oodox Vew of eoes n Rdne-Wnoku (eds) As of and eho ofPs and Pholo, Mnes 19 p 4.
7
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AGAINS MHOD
dream up when confronted with a complex proess, or how some homogeneous material may be subdivided; the queson is to what exten the disncon drawn reets a rea dierene and whether sience an advane without a song interaon between the separated domains. (A river may be subdivided by naona boundaries but this does not make i a disonnuous enty) Now there is, of ourse a ve noeabe dierene between the rules of tesng as 'reconstructed by philosophers of siene and the procedures whih sienss use in aua researh This dierene is apparent to the most superia examinaon On the other hnd, a most superia examinaon aso shows that a determined applia on of the methods ofriism and proofwhih are said o beong to the ontext o jusaon woud wipe out siene as we now it and woud never have permitted it to rise 2 Conversey the at that siene ess proves that these mehods were frequenty over rued They were overruled by proedures whih belong to the ontex o disove Thus the attemp 'to reae he historial origins he psyhoogial genesis and deveopment, he socio poiaeonomi ondions or he aeptane or rejeon o sien heories, ar rom being irreevnt or he sndards o test aualy leads to a riism o these sndards prd he two domains histora researh nd disussion o test procedures are not kept apart by at In nother paper Feig repeas his argumens nd dds some rther poins He is 'astonished ht . shoars such as NR Hanson Thomas Kuhn Mihael Polnyi Paul Feyerabend, Sigmund Koh e onsider he disnon as invalid or at least miseading3 And he poins out hat neiher the psycholo o invenon nor ny similarity however gret between he sienes nd he arts n show tha it does not est In he ey right Even he most surprising stories bout he manner in whih sienss arrive at heir heories nnot excude he possibii hat they proceed in an enrey dierent way one hey have oun hem Bu h pssbl s realed Invenng theories and ontemplang them in a relaxed and ars ashion sienss oten ae oves that are forbidden by methodologia rues For exape they interpret he evidene so hat it s heir niul ideas eliminate diues by c predures push hem aside or sipy rese to take hem serously The avies whih acording to Feig belong to 2 Cf the empe i Chapter 3 mpiiim at ay' MS 1 92 p 2
IN
14
te contet of discove are, theefoe not just d fom what pilosophers say about juscaon h ae n n wh Scienc pacce does not contain to contexts moving s s it is a compicated ue of pedures and we are faced by the queson if this mixture should be left as it is, or f it should be eplaced by a moe 'odely arrangement. Ths is part one of the agument. Now we have seen that science as we know it today could not est wthout a freuent oveling of the context of juscaon. This is part to of the argument. The conclusion is clea. P one shows that we do not have a deence, but a mixture. P two shows tat eplacing the mixtue by an oder that contais discove on one side and juscaon on the other would have ruied science: we ae dealig wth a uniform pracce all of whose igrediens are equally important for the growth of science Tis dsposes of the discon. A similar argument appies to the rtual dsncon beteen metodological ppns and historcal pons Methodolo it is sad, deals with what should be done and caot be criced by refeence to wha s But we must of coue make sure that our prescrpons have a pon ofak i the historical material and we must also make sure that their determed appicaon leads to desiable resuls. We make sure by considerig (historical siologcal, physical psychologcal etc) n and ws wch tell us what is possible and what is not possible under te gven circumstances and thus separate feasible pescrpons from those which are going to lead nto dead ends. Agan pogress can be made only if the disncon beteen the ough and the is regarded as a tempoa device athe than as a fundamental bounda ie. A discon which once may have had a pont but which has now denitey lost it is the disncon beteen obsaonal terms and hel terms. It is now generay admitted that dscon is not as shap as it was thought to be only a few decades ago. It is also admitted, n complete agreement wth Neuraths origina vews that boh theories and obseaons can be abandoned theories may be emoved because of conicng obseaons obseaons may be emoved fo theoecal reasons. Fialy we have discovered that leang does not go from obseaon to theo but always involves both elemens. Experience arises ogh wth theorecal assump ons not before them and an experience wthout theo s just as ncompehensible as is (allegedly) a theo wthout experience eiminate part of the theorecal knowledge of a sensig subject and you have a peon who is competely disoriented and icapable of cag out the simplest acon. Eimate rher knowledge and his s enso wod (his 'obseaon language) sta dsitegrang
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colous and other simple sensaons will disappear un he is in a stage even more primive than a small cld. A small cld, on the other hand does not possess a stable perceptual world which he uses for making sense of the theories put before Quite the conary he passes through various perceptual stages which are ony lsey connected with each other (earier stages dsaear when new stages take over - see Chapter 6) and whch embody al the theorecal knowledge avaiable at the me Moreover the whole process stas only because the chid reacts coecty towards signas, ner ce because he possesses means ofinterpretaon even before he has experienced his st cear sensaon A these discoveries cry out for a new terminolo that no longer separates what is so inmatey connected in the development both of the individual and of science at large Yet th� disncon between obseaon and theory is sl uphed But what is its poin? Nobody wil deny that the sentences of science can be cassied into ong sentences and sho sentences, or that its staements can be classied into those whch are intuively obvious and others which are no Nobody deny that such disncons can be ma But nbody wil put great weigh on them, or wil even menon them, r n nw p a ce le n e bsns fs (This was no always so Intuive pausibiity, for exampe, was once thought to be a mos impoa guide to the uth; it disappeared from methodoo the very momen intuion was repaced by experience, and by foal consideraons) Does experience pay such a roe? I does not, as we have seen Ye the inference hat he disncon between theory and obseaon has now ceased o be relevan, is eiher no drawn or is exiciy rejected! Le us ake a step foard and le us abandon this as ce of dogasm in science Incoensrabiity whch I shal discuss next, is cosey conneced wh he queson of the raonality of science Indeed one of he most general objecons not merey to he e f icoen surabe heories bu even o he idea hat e are such heories o be found in the hsory of science is he fear ha hey woud severey resic he ecacy of adional, nondiaeccal am Le us, herefore, a ittle more closely at he crical sanr which, according to some constue he conten of a 'raonal argument More especialy e us oo a he sndards of he Popperian schoo 4. Neuh ls o e es [whch dsush emrc steme rom ohes d hs wy hrows emiricsm oebord KR Poer e Lo of S «, New Yo d Lodo, 959, 97
FFN
5
whch are sll being taken serousy in the more backward regions of knowledge. Ths wl prepare us for the al step in our discussion of the issue between law-andorder methodologies and anarchism n science. Some readers of my arguments in the above text have ponted out that Popper's crca' raonalism is sucienty ibera to accom modate the deveopments I have descrbed. Now crca raonasm s either a meanngful dea or it is a colecon of slogans that can be adapted to any situaon. In the rst case t must be possible to produce rules, standards resicons whch permt us to separate crcal behaviour (thinking, singng wrng of pays) from other pes ofbehavour so that we can dsc rraonal acons and coe them with the help of concrete suggesons. It s not dcut to produce the standards of raonalty defended by the Popperan school. These standards are standards of sm: raonal discusson consists in the attempt to crcize and not in the attempt to prove or to make probable. Eve step that protects a vew fom crcism that makes it safe o welfounded' is a step away from raonalty. Eve step that makes it moe vuneabe is welcome. In addion it is ecomended to abandon ideas which have been found want ing and it is forbidden to etain them in the face of song and successfu crcsm uness one can present suitable counter arguments. Develop you ideas so that they can be crcized; attack them reentessly; do not to potect them but exhibt thei weak spots; eliminate them a soon as such weak spots have become manifest these ae some of the rues put foth by our cica aonalsts. These rues become moe denite and more detailed when we u to the philosophy of science and especially, to the phlosophy of the naua sciences. Within the natual sciences, cicism s connected wih exper ent and obseaons. The content of a theo consists n the sum tota of those basic statements which conadct it it is the cass of ts potena fasiers. Increased content means inceased vulnerabilty hence theoies ofage content are to be preferred to theoies ofsmal content. ncease of content is wecome decrease of content s to be voided. A theo that contradicts an accepted basic statement must be given up. Ad oc hypotheses are forbidden and so on. A scence however that accepts the rues of a crcal emprcism of this knd il deveop in the folowing manne . We start wth a such as the problem of the planets at the e of Plato. This problem (which I shal discuss n a somewhat
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AGAINS MHOD
ideazed form) s not merely the resut of s, it s a erel rul It s due to the fact that certain eans have been dsappointed: on the one had t seems to be clear that the stars must be dvne, hence one eects them to behave in a ordery and lawful manner. O the other had, one canot nd any easy dscebe reguari The plaets, to a intets and purposes, move in a quite chaoc fashion How can this fact be recoced wth the eectao ad wth the princpes that uderie the eectao? Does t show that the eectao is mstake? Or have we faed in our anaysis of the facts? This is the probem It is important to see that the eemets of the probem are ot simpy The 'fact of rreguari, for exampe, is ot accessibe wthout further ado. It caot be discovered by just anyoe who has heathy eyes and a good mind It s only through a certain expectao that t becomes a object of our atteno. O, to be more accurate, ths fact of ieguar s because there s a expectao of eguari ad because thee are ideas which dene what t means to be reguar. e the term 'rreguarity makes sese only if we have a e. I our case the e that denes eguarityasse circular moo wth costat agua vety. The ed stars agree wth this rue ad so does the su, if we ace its path relave to the ed s. The pae do ot obey the e, nethe directy, wth espect to the earth, o indirectly, wth respect to the ed s (I the pobem we ae eg ow the rue formulated expicitly ad it can be dscussed. This s ot aways the ce Recog a coour as red made possibe by deep-yig pattes coceg the scture of ou suoudigs and ecog o ds ot occu when these pattes cease to est) To sum up pa of the Popperia dine esearch stas wth a probem The problem the result of a coict bewee an expectaon and a obseao which is costute by the expectaon It is cea that this de die fom the ine of inducvism where obece facts enter a passive mind ad eave their aces there It was pepared by Kat, Mach, Poincar, Diger, and by Ml(On Lbe) Havng formulated a pobem, oe ies to se it. Sovig a pobem meas iveng a theo that is eevant, fasiabe (to a degree arge tha any ateave), but ot yet fase. I the case meoed above (panets at the me of Pato), the pobem : to nd circularmoos of costat angua vety fo the purpose ofsavig the paneta pheomena A t souon was provided by Eudoxos and the by Heraceides ofPotos Next comes the m of the theo that has bee put forth in the
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additina prdictins
succes of th ld h (a f h th cntn f th nw th)
faiur f he d thry a f h faiy nn f th ne thry)
attempt t sve the pbem Successfu cicism emves the the once andr al and ceates a new pbem, expan (a) why the the was successfu s fa why i faied Tyin t sve s pblem we need a new the that epduces the successfu cnsequences f the de the, denies its mistakes and makes addinal pedicns n made befe These ae sme ftheal condons which a suable successor of a rued eo must sas. Adpn the cndins, ne pceeds by cnjectue and efutan fm less eneal theries me eneal theies and expands the cnen f human knwlede. Me and me facts ae dscered ( cnsucted with the help f expecans) and ae then explained by theries Thee is n uaanee that scienss wll slve eve pblem and eplace eve the tha has been efued with a success sasin the fmal cndins. The invenn f theries depends n u aents and the ftuitus cicumstances such as a sasfac sex ife Bu as ln as these alents hd u, the enclsed scheme is a rect ccun f the wth fa knwlede that sases the ules fcrica rnalism w a this pin, ne may aise tw quesns. Is it rable live in accrdance with the ules f a crical rnaism? 2 Is ipossble have bth a science as we knw it and these ules? As fa as I am cnceed, the st quesn is fa me impan han the secnd Tue, science and elated nstuns play an impan pat n u cutue, and they cupy the cene f ntees fr many philsphes (mst phlsphes ae pptunists) Thus
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the ideas of the Popperian schoo were obtained by generaizing souons for methodoogica and epistemologica probems Crica raonaism aros from the attempt to understand the Einsteinian revouon and it was then extnded to polics and even to the conduct of ons private ife Such a procedure may sas a scl ps who ooks at ife through the spectacles of his own technica problems and recognizes haed ove happiness ony to the extent to which they occur in these probems But if we consider human interests and above all the queson of human freedom (freedom from hunger despair from the tyranny of conspated systems of thought and nt the academic freedom of the wil) then we ar proceeding in the worst possibe fashion For is it not possibe that science as we know it today, or a search for the truth in the stye of adiona philosophy wll create a monster? Is it not possibe that an obecve approach that frowns upon personal connecons beteen the enes examed wi ha peope, tu them into miserabe unfriendy sef righteous mechanisms without cha and humour? Is it not possibe asks Kierkegaard, that my acvity as an obecve [or a crico-raona obseer of nature wil weaken my sength as a human being? I suspect the answer to many of these quesons is aave and I beieve tha a refo of the sciences tha makes them more anachic and moe subecve (in Kiekegaards sense) ugenty needed But these ae not the pobems I want to discuss now In the pesent essay I sha esict mysef to the second queson and I sha ask: is it possible to have both a science as we know it and the ues of a crica aonalism as ust described? Ad to ts queson the answe seems to be a and esounding NO o sta with we have seen though athe briey that e actual development of instuons ideas pacces and so on, oen nt stam a pbl but athe fom some exaneous acvity such as paying, which, as a side eect leads to developments which ate on can be intepeted as souons to unreaized pobems 6 Ae such deveopments to be excuded? Ad if we do exclude them, ts not consideably educe the numbe of our aapve eacons and the quaity of ou leang pess?
J
. Pir, ed. Hebeg, , Pt I, ec A No. 82 Mies to how how ce method be detd o theo o m d th give osve aswe to the ueo ied by Keegrd; c. ote 2 to Chte 6 C. the brie omme o the elo betwee de ad o Chter For detal c. ote 3 oAgt Method, innoa Si Vol 90
FFN
155
Secondy we have seen in Chapters 814, that a src pnple f n or a naive asicaonism' as Lakatos cas t 7 wod wipe ot science as we know it and wod never have permitted it to start he demand or need cn is not sased ether. Theores whch eect the overthrow o a comprehensve and weenenched point ovew and take over ater its demise are inay restricted to a airy narrow doman o acts to a series o paradigmac phenomena which end them spport and they are only sowly extended to other areas. his can be seen rom historca exampes (ooote 1 2 o Chapter 8) and it is aso pasibe on genera gronds: ing to deveop a new theo we mst rst take a s bk rom the evdence and reconsider the probem o obseaon (ths was discssed n Chapter 1). Later on o corse the theo is extended to other domains; bt the mode o extension is ony rarey determned by the eements that constte the content o its predecessors The slowy emerging concepta apparats o the theory sn sas nng s wn pbls and earier probems acts and obseaons are ether orgotten or pshed aside as irreevant his is an enrey natra deveopment and qte nobjeconable For why shod an deoogy be consained by oder probems which at any rate make sense only n the abandoned context and which ook silly and nnatra now? y shold it even cns the acts' that gave rise to probems o this kind or played a role in their soons y shod t not rather proceed in its own way devsing its own tasks and assembling ts own domain o acts'? A comprehensve theory ater a is spposed to contain aso an nl that determnes what ests and ths deimts the domain o possbe acts and possibe qesons The deveop ment o scence agrees wth these consderaons New vews soon sike ot in new drecons and rown pon the oder pbls (what is the base pon whch the earth rests? what s the specc weght o phogston what is the absote ve o the earth) and the older s (most othe acts described in the aes alcam Chapter 8 ooote 2 the acts o Voodoo Chapter 4, ooote 8 the properes o phlogston or those o the ether) whch so mch exercsed the mnds o earer thinkers And where they pay attenon to preceding theores they y to accommodate their acta core in the manner aready described wth the hep o c ypothes es c appromaons redenion oterms or by smpy 7 Facao ad t Mtodoo o Scic Rac Poamm' akaoMugav (d) im and he h ofKnoledge Cambidg, 1970, pp. 93. (Nav aicaom' ao cad dogmac'.)
1
AGAINST MTOD
seng wthout any moe detailed study of the matte that the coe folows fom the new basic piciples 8 They ae gafted on to ode pogammes with which they [ae] batantly inconsistent9 The esut of al these pedues is an iteesng slgcal usn: the magned content of the eaie theoies (which is the tesecon of the emembeed conseuences of these theoes with the newy ecognized domai of pobems and facts) shn and may decease to such an extent that it becomes smalle than the magned content of the new ideooes (which ae the actua conseuences of these ideoloes plus a those 'facts aws piciples which ae ed to them by hc hypotheses hc appomaons o by the say-so of some inuenal physicist o phiosophe of science and which popely beong to the pedecesso) Compaig the od and the new it thus aea that the eaon of empiica contents is ie this
o pehaps ike ths
while n actual fact it is much moe ike this
8 isei's eo s bette th Neto's theo anno . . it eplied eve th Neto's theo hd sessly eplied ', L op cit. p 2 14. 9 Ltos, d Cois d oh ibid, p 43
FIFTEEN
157
domain D represenn the problems and ats o the old theo whih are sll remembered and whih have been distorted so as to t nto the new ramework I is his illusion whih is responsible or the 10 persisen survival o the demand or inreased ontent Finally, we have by now seen uie disntly the need or hoc hpohes: hoc hypotheses and hoc appromaons reae a entave area o ontat between ats and those parts o a new view whih seem apable o explainin them a some me in the uure and aer addion o muh rher material They spei possible elananda and explanaa, and thus detenine the direon o uure researh They may have o be reained orever i the new ramework partly unhed (his happened in the ase o the uanum theo, whih needs the lassial onepts o u it into a omplete theo) Or they are inoorated ino the new theo as theorems, leadin o a redeon o the basi ers o the preedin ideolo (his happened in the ases o Galileo and o the theo o relavi) The demand tha the thonent o the earer theo as conceed hle he eale heo eed supe be inluded n the uthonent o the suessor violated in either ase To sum up: wherever we look whatever examples we onsider we see that the priniples o rial raonalism (ake alsiaons seriously inrease ontent avoid hoc hypotheses be honest whatever ha mean and so on) and, a o the priniples o loial empiriism (be preise base your theories on measurements avoid vaue and unestable ideas and so on) thouh prased in speial areas ive an inadeuae aount o the pas developmen osiene as a whole and are able to hinder i in the ure They ive an inadeuae aount o siene beause siene muh more I 0 llusion is e core of lie har's excellent par on e development
om Loren to nstein. According to Zahar instein sueded oren with the explanaon of the helion of Mercu 15) But in 5 noby had yet succeeded n giving a relac account ofclical aon theo to the degree f appromaon reached by aplace d Poincar and the implicaons of oren on the atmc level (elecon theo of mels) were not accounted for either but were gradualy replaced by the qutum eo: oren w sueded' not by one but at let two dierent d mutualy incommensurable pes Lakatos in hs ecelent reconscon of the development of the reseah proamme of Cpecus fm the Cm to the D R notes prreive chges but o because he mi the cal and the opcal proble and concenates on �nemacs pure and simple Small wonder that th har and atos are under the !pression that the content condon sll sased Cf my sho note Zahar on Ensten', n the BJPs S Mah 4 wel RN Ngaev Scial Relav a Stage in e Development of Quantum Theo s Sm No 4 88 pp 5
18
AGANS MOD
'soppy and 'irraona than its methodologia image Ad they are iable to hinder it beause the attempt to make siene more 'raona and more preise is bound to wipe it out as we have seen The dierene between siene and methodoo whih is suh an obvious fat of histo therefore indiates a weakness of the latter, and perhaps of the laws of reason as well For what appears as 'sloppiness, 'haos or oppounism when ompared with suh laws has a most impoant non in the development of those ve theories whih we today regard as essenal parts of our knowledge of nature Te a ' e e ' ae pendns f ps They permit knowledge to survive in the ompex and diut word whih we inhabit they permit to remain free and happy agents Without 'haos, no knowedge Without a frequent dsmissal of reason no progress Ideas whih today form the ve basis of siene est only beause there were suh things as preudie oneit passion beause these things sed en and beause they we pted e e way. We have to onlude then, that wn siene reason annot and should not be aowed to be omprehen sive and that it must oen be overrued or eiiated in favour of other agenies There is not a singe rue that remains valid under irumstanes and not a single ageny to whih appeal an always be made. 1
I I ven Ltos' ngenos methoo ds not e ths ndcent Lt seems ll becuse he fobds ve lttle nd he seems on becse he s s fobds methng ut the oly thng he fobds s to b degeneg eserch promme', e reserch pomme lcg n novel pedcos nd cuered wth dptos, proeve. e ds no forbd use ths mes t hs stndrds mt cmn to commt my cmes he n provded he ever es bo them Dels my P P Vol 2 Chpe 0
Append
avng lstnd to on of y anarchsc sons Profsso Wgnr clad But suly you do not rad all th anuscrpts whch pop snd you but you thow ost of th nto th wastpap baskt I ost ctanly do Anythng gos dos not an that I shal rad v sngl pap that has bn writtn God forbd! it ans that I ak y slcon n a hghly ndivdua and dosycac way patly bcaus I cant b bothrd to rad what dosnt ntrst and y ntrsts chang fro wk to wk and day to day partly bcaus I a convncd that huani and vn cnc wll pot fro von doing his own thing a physicst ght pfr a soppy and patly ncoprhnsib papr full of staks to a cstaclar xposon bcaus it is a natural tnsion of hs own s rathr dsorganzd rsach and h ight achiv succss as wl as car ong bfor hs rval who has vowd nvr to ad a sngl wooy ln on of th assts of th Copnhagn chl was ts abi to avoid pratur prcison On oth occasions h ght look for th ost pfct prf of a prncip h s about to us in ord not to b sidackd n th dbat of what h considrs to b hs ain rsuts Thr ar of cours so-cad 'thinrs who subdvd thir ai in xactly th sa way co ran co sunshin and who also itat ach othrs prncips of choic but w hall hardly adir th for thir unfori and w shal crtainly not thn thr bhavour raonal cinc nds pop who a adaptabl and nvnv not rgid itators of 'stablishd bhavoua patts In th cas of nstuons and organizaons such as th Naonal cnc Foundaon th stuaon s xactly th sa Th physognoy of an organzaon and its cncy dpnds on its bs and t provs wth thr ntal and oona agil vn Poctr and Gabl ralzd that a bunch ofys-n s nfror copv potnal to a group of popl wth unusual opnons and usnss has found ways of incopoang th ost aazing onconfosts nto thir achn pca probls aris wth
59
0
AGAINS MHOD
foundaons ha disribue money and wan o do his in a jus and reasonable way Jusce seems o demand ha he allaon of funds be carried ou on he basis of sandards which do no change from one applican o he nex and which reec he inelecua siuaon in he elds o be suppored The demand can be sased in an oc manner wihou appea o unal sandards of raonaiy: any free assiaon of people mus respec he iusions of is memers and mus ve hem insuona suppor The ilusion of raonal becomes especialy song when a scienc insuon opposes polical demands In his case one class of sandards is se agains anoher such class and his is quie legimae: each organizaon each pay, each reious group has a righ o defend is parcuar form of life and al he sandards i conains Bu scens go muc fuer Like he defenders of The One True Relion efore hem hey insinuae ha heir sandards are essena for ariving a he Truh, or for geng Resus and hey deny such auhoriy o he demands of he poician They oppose al polica inerference, and hey fal over each oher g o remind he isener, or he reader, of he disasrous oucome of he Lysenko aair Now we have seen ha he belief in a unique se of sandards ha has always ed o success and will aways lead o success is nohing bu a chimera The eorecal auhoriy of science is much smaler han i is supposed o be Is socal auhoriy, on he oher hand, has by now become so overpowering apolcal neerence s necsa o rore a balanced elmen And o judge he s of such inerference one mus sudy more han one unanalysed case One mus remember hose cases where science, lef o iself, commied grievous blunders and one mus no fore he insances when polical inerference did mpre he siuaon Such a balanced presenaon of he evdence may even convnce us ha he me is overdue for adding he separaon of sae and science o he by now quie cusomary separaon of sae and church Science is only one of he many insrumens people invened o cope wih heir surroundings I is no he only one, i is no infalible and i has become oo powerful, oo pushy, and oo dangerous o be ef on is own Nex a word abou he prcal am raonaliss wan o realize wh he hep of eir mehodoogy Raonaliss are conceed abou inelecual poluon I share his conce Iierae and incompeen books ood he marke, empy verbiage full of srange and esoeric erms claims o express profound I A exampe wa diued the text t te 12 Chapter 4
APP P N N DIX I
11
isights, experts' without bras, character, ad without eve a modcum of telectual, stylisc, emooa temperamet tel us about our codo' ad the meas for improvig t, ad they do ot ony preach to us who mght be abe to look through them, they are et oose o our chidre ad permitted to drag them dow to ther ow iteectua squaor. 2 Teachers usg gades ad the fear of faiure aiure moud mou d the bras bras o the youg you g u u they they have have ost ost evey evey ouce of imagao they mght oce have possessed This s a dsasous situao, ad oe ot easiy meded But I do ot see how a raoalsc methodo metho doo o ca hep he p As far far as I am coceed the rst and the most pressg press g probem probem s to get educao edu cao out ou t of the hads of of the professioa educatos The cosats of gades, compeo regula examao must be emoved ad we mus a sarae e pc pcss flea fleangf ngfm e praran praranr a palar palar r I gat that busess regos, specia professos such as scece o postu o have a ght to demad that the pacpats ad/o pracoes coform to stadads they regard as impoat, ad that they shoud be able to ascea the competece I aso admt that ths imples the eed fo speca types of educao that prepae prepae a ma or a woma for the coespodg examaos. The stadards taught eed ot be raoa o easoabe i ay sese though they i be usually peseted as such; it suces that they ae ed by the goups oe wats to jo, be t ow Scece, o Bg Busess o The Oe Te Rego Rego Ae all a democracy democracy easo easo has ust as much much ght ght to be head ad to be expessed as ureaso ur easo'' especaly especaly vew of the fact that oe ma's reaso s the othe mas saty But oe thg must be avoided at al costs: the speca stadads which dee specal subects ad specal professos must ot be ao aowed wed to permeat perm eatee gal educao educao ad they must must ot be made the deg poper of a well-educated peso. Geeal educao shoud pepare pepare ces ces to cse cse bewe bewe the stadads or to d ther way i a socety that cotas goups commtted commtted to vaous stadards stada rds bu mus unr unr n cnd cnd nn bd er mn s a e sanr fne palar gup gup The stadads wll be cnsred they wl be dsssed chde wll be ecouaged to get pocecy the ge p p n a ga game that oe impoat subects, bu n ne ge i, i, thout seious commet commet ad without obbg obbg the md of ts abiity to pay othe games as we. Havg bee pepaed ths way a youg perso may decide to devote the est of his le to a pacula po poesso ad he may stat takg it eiousy orthwith This 2 ve he aw ow eems to uo hee edeces, as sho i Peer Galileoo Rge Rge New Yo, 1991 ube' Galile
1
AGANS MHOD
'commient should be the result of a conscious decision on the basis of a fairly complete knowledge of alteaves and n aregne
nlusn.
Al this means of course, that we must stop the siensts from taking over educaon and from teaching as 'fat and as the one ue method whatever the myth of the day happens happens to be Agreement wth science, deision to work in acordane with the anons of sciene shoud be the result ofexaminaon and choie, and n ofa paruar way of bringing up hildren. t seems to me that suh a change in eduaon and, as a result, in perspecve wil remove a great dea of the intellectual poluon raonalists deplore. The change of perspeve makes it lear that there there are many ways of ordering the world that surrounds surroun ds us that the hated onsaints of one set of standards may be broken by freely aepg standards of a dierent kind, and that there is no need to rejet all order and to allow allow oneself to be reduced reduce d to a whining seam of onsiousness onsiousness A society that that is based on a set of wellden well dened ed and resive rules so that being human beomes synonous with dsserr n n a nm nman an s land f fn l obeying these rules, res e dsse a all all and us us bs m m fs reasn reasn and s um uman n . t is the paradox of mode irraonalism that its proponents siently iden raonaism with order and arulate speech and thus see themselves forced to promote promote stammering and and absurdity - many forms forms of 'mysism and 'estenaism are impossible without a rm but unreaized ommient to some principles of the despised ideolo ust remember the 'theo that poey is nothing but emoons olourfully expressed). Remove the prinipes, admit the possibity of many dierent forms of life, and suh phenomena wll disappear lke a bad dream. My diagnosis and my suggesons oincide oincid e wth those of Lakatos up to a point Lakatos Lak atos has idened overl overlyrg yrgd d raona raonality lity prinipes of irraonalsm and he has urged us to as the source of some versions ofirraonalsm adopt new and more liberal standards have idened overlyrigid raonality priniples as well as a general respet for 'reason as the soure of some forms of mysism and irraonalism, and I also urge the adopon of more libera standards But while Lakatos great 'respect for great sience 3 makes him look for the standards within the onnes of mode scene of the ast two centuries,4 I recommend to put science in its pae as an interesng but by no means exlusive form of knowedge that has many advantages but 3 Hito', p. I I3 . p I I I 4. ibd, p
APPN DIX I
16
aso many drawbacks: Athough scence taken as a whoe s a nusance, one can sll lea rom t 5 Aso dont beleve that charlatans can be banned just by ghtenng up ues Charatans have ested at a es and n the most ghtyknt proessons Some o the exampes wch Laatos menons6 seem to ndcate ndcate that the probem probe m s created create d by too much cono cono and a nd not by too lte lte Ths s especay ue o the new revoluonaes and ther reo o the unverses Ther ault s that they are Putans and n that they are benes8 Besdes who woud eect that cowards wl mprove the ntellecua clmate more ready than w lbernes? (Ensten saw ths problem and he thereore advsed people not to connect ther research wth ther proesson research has to be ree rom the pressures whch proessons are lkey to mpose We must also remember that those rare cases where beral methodologes encourage emp verbage and oose thnng (loose rom one pont o vew though perhaps not om anothe) may be nevtable n the sense that the gu bealsm s a a precondon o a ree and humane le Fnay, let me epeat that o me the chauvnsm o scence s a much geate pobem than the problem o nteecual polluon t may even be one ots mao causes Scensts ae not content wth runnng ther own papens n accodance wth what they egad as the ues o scenc method they want to unvesale these ules, they want them to become pa o soce at age and they use eve means at the the dsposa agument agument popaganda popaganda pessure taccs, nda ndao on, n, obbyn obbyngg - to acheve acheve ther ther as as The Cnese Cnese ommusts ecogned ecogned the danges nheent n ths chauvnsm and a nd they poceeded to remove t In the pocess they estoed mportant parts parts o the ntellecual and emoonal hetage o o the Chn C hnese ese pe people ople and they also poved the pacce o medcne0• It woud be o advantage othe govements oowed sut
5 G Gre redd Benn eer Ger Mh Smn I I Ober qued rm Gred Ben Lyk und Psa B und Dkume Wesbden 6 p 35 6 . Flsn p 76 e I . 7 ls hs remrks l lse se susness' susness' n Hst pp 8 8 8 Fr n lder exmple he BEi rk 7 p I BEi nn Le New Yrk . d. pp . e t tes tes hper
16 nal te knd knd fcmpa cmpas snn tat tat un unrl mst mst met metllg g s s pssble n n sme rater smple ses It brea wn w we t t cmpare nnsctc vews wt scce r w we cnsr te mst aanced mst mst ga gall and terre mst mst mytl tlgc gcal alpas pas fscce e e
I have much symathy wth the view fomulated cealy ad eegatly by Whof Whof (ad acated by Baco) that laguages ad the eaco attes they ivove ae ot meely isumets fo bng evets (facts states of aai) but that they ae aso sap of evets (facts states of aas) that thei gamma cotais a cosmoo a comehesive view of the wod ofsiety sie ty of the stuao stuao of ma2 whch ueces thought behaviou eceo3 Accodig to Whof the cosmoo of a aguage is exessed atly by the ove use of wods but t aso ests o casscaos casscaos whch ha[ve] o ove mak but whch oeate [] though a ivisble "ceal exchage of lkage bods i such a way as to detemie othe wods whch mak the class4 Thus [the gede ous such as boy g fathe wfe uce woma ady icudg thousads of gve ames ke Geoge Fed Ma Chale sabe sadoe Jae Joh Alce Aloysius Esthe Leste bea o dsguishig mak of gede ke the La - o a wth each moto ocess but evetheless each of these thousads of wod has a ivaiable lkage bod coecg it wth absoute ecso eithe to the wod "he o to the wod "she which howeve does ot come ito the ovet behaviou 1 Accodi Accodi to o te aco acoud ud liuisc system ( ote wods wods e amma amma)) o eac lauae laua e is ot meey a eoduci system system o o voici de d e ut ut ate at e s s tsel tse l a sae o de, te oamme oamme ad ude ud e o o te idivduals metal acvity o is aalyss o imessios, o is sytesis o s metal st ade Lan Lanag ag ug ug and Rali Cami Camide de Mass Mass 196 19 6 1 2 1 See also also Ae Aed dxx 2 2 As a examle c os os aalyss ooi Metayscs Metayscs i id, 7 7 3 se se o maedly deet deet amma ae oited y te amma amma towads towads die diee et t tye tyess o os ose ea ao oss , d d,, 22 1 4 id id,, 69. 69.
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pctue u d uess spec stuos of dscouse eque t ' 5 csscos (whch becuse becuse of o fthe subtere tue tue e sesed rthe rthe th th com comp peheded eheded weess weess of [them [them hs 6 e qute pt pt o o be moe o o th th tuve qu whch e ove oes7 d whch my be ve suble d o coeced wth y grd dchotomy 8) cete ptteed esstces o wdey dverge pos of vew f these esstces oppose o us the uth of the essed eves bu the pesumpo th teve hs bee peseed the we hve sce of commesubl so beeve th scec theoes such s Asoles heo of moo the theo of relv the qutum theo clssc d mode cosmolo e sucely gee sucely deep d hve deveoped sucely complex wys o be cosdeed log the sme es s tu lguges lgu ges The dscussos th pepe the so o ew ge physcs o soomy e hdly eve rescted to the ove fetues of the othodox po of ew They ofte reve hdde des eplce them by des of dee d d d chge chge ove ov e s we we s cove cove csscos csscos Gleos Gleo s lyss lyss of the tower gume led o cee fomuo of the Astotel theo ofspce d d t so so reveed the t he deece deece betwee betwee mpetus mpetus ( 5 ibid, p 68. 6. ibid., p 7. Even [a] phoneme may sme denite manc des pa of
its apr aprtt In English English the phoneme 3 tho'] (the voiced voiced sound so und of ) c c inialy inialy only i th cptoty cptoty [covert [cove rt classicaon classicao n ot connected with any grand dchotomy p. 7] of dmonsave dmonsave pacles (the, this, th is, thee, than, etc) etc ) Hence, thee is a p prsre against accepng the voiced sound of in new o imagna wods: ig, ay, ob, zle, etc., not havng demonsave meaning Enconterng sch a new wod (. ob) on a page, we will "insncvely "ins ncvely gve it the voicele und u nd 9 of of in think think t i is ot "insnct "i nsnct s ou old fend inguisc apr aprtt again' (p 76 my itaics). 7 ibid ibid,, p 8 The The pass passag agee conn connes es:: . me ather foal and not v meaninf meaninf linguisc group, maked by some overt featue, may hap to coincide ve oughly with some concatenaon of phenomena in such a way to suest a aona aonaliz lizao aonn of this paralelism paralelism In the coue of o fphonec change, the disnguishng ma ma,, ending o what not is lost, and the class pses fom a forma forma to a semanc one o ne I eac eaca anc ncee is now what wha t disnguishes it a class, and i idea is what nies ni es it me and se go on, it becomes increingy organized around a aonale, it atac �emancally suiable wods and los foer mem that now are semancaly appopate Logic is now wha holds i togethe' Cf Mls account of his ed edcaonal development as derid der id n tet te t to f fote ote I 4 ofChapte ofChapte . 8 Whorf Whorf op. ct, ct, p . 7 Such sbe sbe classicaons ae ae caled cptotys cptotys by by Worf A cptoty is a submerged sube, and elusive meanng, coesndng to o act actal wod, yet shown by linguisc analysis to be fnconaly imnt n the gramma' . 9 ibid, p 47
AGANS MHOD
absolute magnitude that inheres in the object) and momentum (which depends on the chosen reference system). Einstein's anaysis ofsiul taneity unearthed some features of the Newtonian cosmolo which, though unknown, had inluenced al arguments about space and me while Nies Bohr found in addion that the physica word could not be regarded as being enrely separated from the obseer and thus gave content to the idea ofndependence that was part of classica physics Attending to cases such as these we reaze that scienc arguments may indeed be subjected to patteed resistances and we expect that ncomensurabilty wl aso occur among theories (As incomensurability depends on covert cassicaons and nvoves major conceptua changes it s hardly ever possible to ve an expict denion of it Nor wil the customary reconsucons succeed in brinng it to the fore The phenomenon must be shown the reader must be led up to it by being confronted wth a great variety of instances and he must then judge for hself Ts be the method adopted in the present chapter) Interesng cases of incomensurability occur already in the domain ofpn Gven approprate smui, but dierent systems of classicaon (derent mental sets) our perceptua apparatus may produce perceptual objects wch cannot be easly compared10 A drect udgement is ipossible We may compare the two obects in our m but n while attending to the same pue The t drawg beow goes one step rther It ves rise to perceptual obects whch do not ust nae other perceptual obects - thus reg the basc categories - but prevent the formaon of any obect whatsoever (note that the cylnder in the midde fades into nothngness we approach the insde of the opronged smuus) Not even memory can now ve us a full vew of the alteaves
10 A mate of nocon Kenneth lar ha eceny decrbed to u mot vvdly how even he wa defeated when he attempted to "tall an luon Lng at a great Velque he wanted to obee what went on when the bh oe and dab of pent on the canva anfoed themelve nto a von ofangued ea a he tepped bac But he mght teppng bacwad and foad he coud neve hod both von at the ame me , Gombrch a Ii Prnceton 16 p 6
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ve picture with only a moicum of perspecve exhbts this phenomenon: we may ece to pay attenon to the pece ofpaper on which the lines are rawn but then there is no threeimensonal patte; on the other han we may ecie to invesgate the properes of ths patte but then the surface of the paper isappears or s integrate into what can only be cale an iluson. There is no way of catching the ansion from the one to the other n all these cases the perceive age epens on mental sets that can be change at wil wthout the hep of rugs hypnosis reconionng But menta sets may become frozen by illness as a result of ones upbringing in a certan cuture or because of hysologcal etermnants not in our conol ot eve change of anguage is accompanie by perceptual changes) Our attue towars other races or towars peope of a erent cutural backgroun often epens on 'frozen sets of the secon kin: having leae to rea faces in a stanar way we make stanar ugements an are e asay interesng example of physiologcaly etermne sets leang to ncommensurability s provie by the elm f uman pern As has been suggeste by Paget an his schl 12 a chls percepon procees through various stages before t reaches ts reavely stable ault form. n one stage objects seem to behave vey much lke afterimages an are treate as such. The chl I I C L Gego, The Iteliget Eye Lodo, 970, Chapte C aso the
dco beee eiko ad phatasma i Pato Sht 3b8 This appea i r eeming" wthut realy being . . . al these expressions have aways been
ad st e deepy ioed i pepexity' Pat taks about the distoros i statues of oa sie which were itroduced to make them ear wth the poper poios I aot make se of a isio ad wath it, says Gombrich i such cases op cit p Piaget, The oon ofReal he h New Yok 954, pp
8
AGAINST MTHOD
foows the obect with his eyes un it disppers; he does not mke the sightest ttempt to recover i even if ths shoud require but mnim physic (or inteectu) eort n eort moreover tht is lredy within the childs rech. There is not even endency to serch nd this is is quite quite pprop ppropri rite te conceptuy concep tuy'' speking speking or it woud indeed be nonsensic to ook for' n fterimge Is concept does not provde for for such n operon operon The rr rriv ivll ofthe concept conc ept nd ofthe perceptu percept u imge imge of mter mter obects chnges the siuon quite drmcy There occurs drsc reorenon of behvour pttes nd so one my conecure of thought Aerimges or things somewht ike them sl est; but they re now dicut to nd nd must be discovered by speci methods (the erier visu word therefore iterlly ds aea) Such methods proceed from new conceptu scheme (fterimges occur in umans, they re not ps of the physc word) nd cnnot ed bck to the exct phenomen of the prevous sge (These phenomen should therefore be ced by derent nme such s pseud pseudof ofterimges' terimges' very interesng interesng percepu nogue to the nsion nsion from from sy Newtonn mechnics to spec relvi: revi too does not give us Newtonn fcs but relvsc nogues of Newtonin fcs) Neither ermges nor pseudoerimges hve speci posion n the new world or exmpe they re not eted s ce on which the new noon of mter obect supposed to rest Nor cn they be used to n ase ge e w w , they depend on t nd noon erimges ase re bsent from the mnds of those who do not yet recoe ter obecs; nd pseudoerimges dsaea s soon s such recognion tkes pce The percepul eld never conns er imges together wth pseudoftermges It s to be dtted tht every sge possesses kind of obseon bss to whih whih spec spec ttenon s pd nd from which multude of suggesons re receved However ths bsis () cang from sge to sge nd (b) t s pa of the concepul pprus of given sge not s one nd only source of interpreon s some emprcss woud ke to ke us beleve Considerng deveopmens deveopmens such s these these we my suspet tht the fmily of conceps cening upon mter obect' nd the fly of conceps cenng upon pseudoftermge' re incommensurbe 1 3 . This seems o be a geera feature of the acquisio of ew reua reua worls: worls: The oer rereseaos for the most a hae o be suree rather tha refoe writes Sao i his eh-mi eh-migg esy Visio without Ieio of the Rea Image e P 97 . . 471 Pl l R 1 897
SXE
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in eciely the ene that i at iue hee; thee familie cannot be ued imutaneouly and neithe ogica no eceptual conneon can be etablihed between them. Now i it eaonabe to epect that coneptua and peceptual change of thi kind occu in chidhood only? Should we wecome wec ome the fact if it i a fact that an adut i tuck wth a table peceptua wold and an accompanyng accompanyng tabe conceptua ytem ytem which he can modi in many way but whoe geneal outlne have foeve become immobilized? O i t not moe ealc to aume that fundamental change, change, entang incommenuabil, ae l poibe and that they houd be encouaged let we emain foeve ecluded fom what mght be a highe tage of knowledge and concoune? Beide, the queon ofthe of the mobi mobi ofthe adut tage i at any ate an empica queon that mut be attacked by rearc, and cannot be ettled by methodoogcal a. 1 4 The attempt to beak though the boundae of a gven conceptual ytem an eenal pat of uch eeach (t alo houd be an eenal pat of any inteeng life. Such an attempt involve much moe than a polonged 'cical dicuon 1 5 a ome elic of the enlightenment woud have u believe One mut be able to prduce and to grp new eceptual and concetual elaon including elaon which ae not immediately appaent appaent (covet (covet elaon elaon ee above and a cannot be acheved by a cical dicuon aone (cf. ao above, Chapte 1 and 2) The ohod ohodo o account account ne neglec glectt the covet cove telaon elaon that tha t contbute contbute to thei th ei meaning, degad peceptua change and eat the et n a igdly tandadized way o that any debate f unuual idea i at once topped by a eie of oune epone But now th whole aay of epone i in doubt. Eve concept that cu in it i upect, epecial epecialyy 'fundamental 'fundamental concept uch a a 'obeaon, 'obea on, 'tet, and, of itelf. And a egad the wod 'uth we we coue coue the concept 'theo itelf. can at thi tage only ay that it cetainly ha people n a zzy, but ha no acheved much ele. The bet way to peed n uch cicumtance i to ue eample whch ae outide the ange of the oune epone. It i fo thi eaon that I have decded to eamne ean of epeentaon epeenta on d d eent eent fom language o theoie th eoie and to develop my eminolo in connecon wth them. Moe epecially, I haleamine hal eamine le n panng and dawing. It wil emege that thee As Lakatos attemp to do Fasicaon, p 179 fooote : nommen uabe theoie theoie ae neihe n eihe inconsisten wi eah othe, no compabe compabe fo content ut we an me hem, by a dictiona dictiona cosisen ad thei thei conte compabe compabe 5 Poppe Cim a e Gw Gw Knwe Knwedg dgee p 56 Poppe i Cim
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GIN EHO
are no 'neual objects whch can be represented i any stye, and whch measure its closeness to 'reality. The applicaon to languages is obvous The 'archaic s e as dened by Emanuel Loewy in hs work on ancient Greek art 6 has the following following characterisc characteriscs.s. () The sucure and the movement of the gures and of their pas pas are lited lited to a few few tpical schemes; (2) the indvdua forms are stylized stylized hey tend to have have a certain regularity and are 'executed 'executed wih precise absacon;7 n; 7 (3) the representaon of a fo depends on the nu whch may retain retai n he he value of an independent independent line or form orm the boundaries of o f a sihouette sihouette 'The 'The sihouettes sihouettes could cou ld be ven a number of posures posures:: they coud stand march, row drive, d rive, ght ht de, lament. . But But alw always ays their essenal essenal suc sucu ure re must be be cear; 8 () /u appea in one shade only and gradaons of light and shadow are mssng; (5) as a ule the gures show heir pas (and he larger epsodes ther elements) n he s ple plee pe pe even if hs means awkwardness in composion and 'a certain disregard of spaa relaonships The pas are ven heir known value even when hs concts wih her seen relaonship to he whole;9 hus (6) wh a few well-determied excepons the gures which form a composon are arranged in such a way that ups ae ae d d and objecs suated behnd each oher are presented as beig sde by side; (7) he n of an acon (mounta (mountas s clouds, ees, etc) is eher completely dsregarded or it s omtted to a arge exent The acon fos selfcontaied unts of tpical scenes (bates, neras, etc)20 These stysc stysc eeme eemens ns which are found, found, i varous varous modcaons, modcaons, i the drawgs of chidren the 'fronta art of he Epans, in early Greek we among socalled Prm Prmves, ves, are elaed
6 D n G G K K Rome haer . uses chac' a g te coveng phenomena Epan Greek d
Pmve n the drawn of chdrn and of untutored obsee. n Greece hs aa d ( to remarks app to the g s (to do e aa 5 whch eas the human re n geater deta and nvovs t ve epses. f. F Ma G G K Vo. I we G k S and and Panng Panng ambdge 66 hapte I and Beaz and shmoe Gk III. New York 164 p. 22 Webstr rgards Webster F M ths u ofmp ad ca patte' i Geek geomec a the foerunne ofate deveopmet i (umat the nvo of pecve) mathemacs ad phosoph'. Webste op. ct. p. 25 bd. p. 2 2 Beaz Beaz ad shmoe shmoe op. ct. c t. p. p . 3.
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by Loewy on the bass of psychoogcal mechansms: Sde by sde wth the mages whch eaty ea ty pesents to the physcal physcal eye thee ests an enely d d eent eent wod ofmag ofmages es whch lve o bette, come to fe fe n ou mnd only and whch whch although although suggested by ealty ae totaly tansf tansfomed omed Eve Eve p pve ve act of dawn dawngg es es to epoduce epoduce these mages and them alone wth the nsncve egulaty of a psychcal funcon'2 The achac stye changes as a esult of numeous planned obseaons of natue whch mod the pue ages''22 22 nate nate the development towads easm easm and thus mental ages stat stat the hsto of at Naral physologca easons ae gven fo the achac style and fo ts change Now t s not cea ce a why t should be moe natual' to copy memo mages than mages of o f pecepon whch whch ae bette dened and moe pemanent23 We also nd that ealsm oen moe schemac foms of pesentaon Ths s ue of the Old Stone Age 24 of Epan 25 of Atc Geomec At 26 In all these cases the achac style' s the esult of a oo whch may of couse e aded o hndeed, by unconscous tendences and physologcal aws) athe than a natual eacon to nteal deposts 2 1 1 wy op. ct. p 4 22 b. b. p. 6 23 The facts of ce are noce t they o not enter the pctoa
presentaton ths s seen om tera erpons Cf. H. Schfer A" Ku Wesbaen 63 pp. where the probem probem s her e 4 Cf Paoo Gros P A, New Yor 16 an Anr e Gorhan Tu PA, New Yor 6 both wth exceent saons saons.. These rests were not k to wy Catahacs Mea cpa n epqe' for exampe exampe apare ony n 2 25. Cf. the change n the presentaon of anmas n the oe of the anson fom preync mes to e Ft n The Ben on (Bern Saaches Msem Nr 22 s w threaenng qte eren eren n ereon an eecon fom the majesc anma of the Secon an Thr nes. The ater seems to e more a representaon of the on than of any na on. Cf aso the erence between the facon on the cto tabet of Kng Nae (bacse) an on the bra stone of Kng Waj (Djet) of the Frst n. Eeywhee one aance to pe car the fos wee sengthene an mae smpe Schfe op ct pp 2 2 escay p 1 5 where her etas are gen 26 Atc geomec geomec a sho sho ot e cae ca e prme athough t h not the n f photogaphc easm whch tera schoa seem to ema n pang It s a ghy sophscate sophscate a a wth own coenos coenos whch whch see own puses. puses. As wth the shapes an the oamentaon a reoon separates from ate Mycenaean pag s eouo eouo es e s wee euce to the the mmm shouetes an out f hese mnmum shouettes e new a w bt up Webste op ct p 205.
17
AGANS MHOD MHO D
o f extea exteall smuli.2 7 Instead of looking for the psychologcal us of a style' we should therefore rather y to discover its lts analyse their uco compar comparee them them with other ot her phenomena phenomena of the same culture Oitera style, sentence construcon, grammar, ideoloy) and thus arrive at an outine of the underlying worldv including an account of the way in whch this worldview inuences percepon, thought, argument, and of the limits it imposes on the roaming about of the imagnaon We shall see that such an anayss anayss of outines prodes a better understandng of the press of conceptual change than ether a naturalsc account whch recognizes only one reality' and orders aworks by their closeness to it, or ite slogans such as a crical discussion and a comparison of . various frameworks is always possible 28 f course, som nd of comparison is lwys possible (for example, one physical theo may sound more melodious when read aloud to the accompaniment of a guitar than another physical theo) But lay down spc rules for the press of comparison, such as the rules of logc as appled to the relaon of content classes, or some simple rules of perspecve and you will nd excepons, undue restrcons, and you wll be forced to tak your your way out ou t of ouble at eve tu It s much more interesng intere sng and insucve to examne what kinds of thngs can be sad (represented) and what what kinds ofthings ofthings cannot be said (represented)
t compso s to tk pl wt c spd d stol wltrd rmork. For such an examnaon we must go
beyond generaies and study frameworks in detail I start with an account of some examples of the archaic style The human gure shows the following characteriscs: the men are ve tal and thin, the unk of a trangle tapering to the wast, the head of a knob with a mere excrescence for a face towards the end of the style the head is lit up - the head knob knob is drawn in in outine, and a dot signies the eye'. 29 All, or almost al, parts are shown in prole and they are sung together like the limbs of a puppet or a rag dol They are not integrated' to form an organic whole This addive feature of the archaic stye becomes ve clear from the eaent of the eye. The eye does not parcipate in the acons of the body, it does not guide the body or establish contact with the surrounding situaon, it does not look' It is added on to the proe head lke part Ths thesis is fher sped by the obseaon that so-caed Primes oten ther back to the obects they want to draw; Schfer, op cit., p. 1 aer
Conze Popper, i Cm etc etc p 56. Beazy y and Ashmoe, op cit, cit, p 3 . Beaz
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of a notaon as if the arst wanted to say: 'and besde all these other ngs such as legs, arms feet a man has aso eyes, tey are in te head one on each sde. Smlarly special states of te body (ave dead, sick) are not ndicated by a specal arrangement of ts parts but by pung the same standard body into various standard postos Thus the body of te dead man in a funeral carriage is arculated in exacty the same way as that of a standng man but it s rotated trough 90 degrees and inserted in the space between the bottom of the shroud and te top of the ber 3 Being shaped like te body of a lve man t is to put nto the death posion. Aoter instance is the picture of a kid haf wallowed by a lon 31 The lon lks ferous the kid looks peacel and the act of walowing s simply tckd o to the presentaon of what a lon s and what a kid s (We have what is called a prtc rgt the elements of such an aggregate are al given equal importance the only relaon beeen them is sequenal there s no hierarchy no part s presented as being subordnate to and determned by oers) The pcture r: ferious lon peacel kid wallowing of kid by lon The need to show eve essenal part of a stuaon often leads to a separaon of parts whch are actualy in contact The pctre becomes a list Thus a charioteer standing in a carriage shown as standing above te loor (whch is presented in its fllest vew) and unencumbered by the ras so tat hs feet the oor the rals can al be clearly seen No ouble arises if we regard te painng as a vl tlog of the par of an event rather than as an luso renderng of the event tself (no ouble arises when we sy hst touched the oor whch s rgr and he was surrounded by a rlg )32 But such an interpretaon must be ld it canot be smply read othe pictre The amount of leg needed may be consderable Some Epan drawings and panngs can be decoded only i te help of either te represented object itself or th te help of three diensonal copes of t (statua in the case of huans, animals, etc) Using suc nformaon we lea tat the chair n Fre A represents the obect of Fire C and not the object of Figre B and tat t must be read: 'chair t backrest and four legs, legs connected 30 Webster op. it. p. 204 The painter fees the need to say that he h two s two e and a many hest. 3 I Hamp Di GlnsH u d Bis sn Z Tbingen 152 3 2 A geome pitures of hariots show at east one of these distoons Webster op. it. p 204 Late Myenaean potte on the other hand has the e of the upants oneaed by the side
174
AGAINST MTHOD
by support where it is understood that the front les are connected with the back les and not with each other 33 The intepretaon of roups is complicated and some cases are not yet understood. 3 4
GUR
GUR B
GUR
C
(Bein able to 'read a certain style also includes knowlede of what features are "ln. Not eve feature of an archaic ist has representaonal value just as not eve feature of a written sentence plays a role articulatin its content This was overlooked by the Greeks who started inquirin into the reasons for the 'dnied postures of Epan statues (already lato commented on this). Such a queson 'miht have struck an Epan arst as it woud strike us f someone inqured about the ae or the ood of the kin on the chessboard 3 5) So far a brief account of some peculiaries of the 'archaic stye A style can be described and analysed n vaous ways The descripons ven so far pad attenon to nlur the archaic style provides vsbl lss whose parts are arraned in rouhly the same way n which they occur in 'nature ecept when such an arranement is liable to hde mportant elements All parts are on the 33 Schfer, op ci. p. 3 3 bi., pp. 3 35 Gombrch, op ci p. 3, iterature
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same leel, we ae supposed o ead' te lists ate tan see' tem as illuso accouns o te situaon 3 Te lists ae no oganized in any way ecept sequenally, tat is te sape o an elemen does not depend on te pesence o ote elements (addng a lon and te act o swallowing does not make te kd look unappy; addng te pocess o dyng does not make a man look weak) Acaic pictues ae prt gts, no ypotacc systems. Te elements o te aggegate may be pysica pas suc as eads, arms, weels tey may be states o aa suc as te act tat a body is dead they may be acons suc as te acon o swalowng Instead o descrbing the ormal eatures o a stye, we may descibe the otololturs o a wod that consists o the elements epesented in the style aanged in the appopiate way and we may also descrbe te mprso suc a wold makes upon te iewe Tis is the pedue o the at cic wo loes to dwell on te peculia beaiou o the caractes wc the ast puts on is canas and on the inteal lie the beaiour seems to indcate Tus GMS Hanmann37 wites on the acac gue No matte ow animated and agile acaic eoes may be, they do not appea to moe by their own wil Tei gestures ae eplanato ormuae imposed upon the actos om without in ode to eplain wat sot o acon is going on And the cuca obstacle to the conicg portayal o nne ie was the cuiously detaced caacte o the acac eye It sows that a peson is ale, bu t cannot adust itseto te demands o a specc stuaon Een wen the acaic ast succeeds n denong a umoous o agic mood, these actos o eealed gestue and detaced glance ecal the eaggerated animaon o a puppet play ontoogical descipon requently adds ust ebiage to the 3 We come coser to the factua content of fronta gg] drawings of objects, if we sta by ing their para contents in the form of naae decarae sentences The fronta me of representao gives us a isua concept" [Sb of the thig (the situao) represented. Schfer, op cit, p 11. Cf a Webster, op cit, p 22 about the aave ad epaato character of Myceaean ad geomeic a But cf HA GroeewegeFrafo, A and , Lodo, 151 pp 33f the scenes from daiy ife o the was of Epan obs shoud be read" haesng etais poughig, sowing, and reaping care of ae etais fording of streams ad miig the sequece of scenes is purey oeptua, ot aae, or is the writing which urs with the scenes dramac in aracter The sigs, remarks, ames, songs ad epaaos, which iuminate the aco do not ik eets or epain their deeopmet they are typica sayigs belogig to typical situaons.'
37 Naao in Greek A Aman Jua fA Vo 61 Jana
19 5 7, p. 74.
17
AGAN ST METOD
fomal analysis; it is nothing but an exercise in 'sensivty and cuteness. However, we must not disregard the possibiity that a parcua stye prs out ot world t s prd t st d otporrs and that evey fomal feature corresponds to (hdden or expicit) assumpons nherent in the underlng cosmoo (In the case of the 'archaic stye we must not disregard the possibty that humans then actually lt themseves to be what we today woud ca puppets guided by outside foces and that they sw and trtd others accordngy) Such a rlst trtto of styles would be in line with Whors thesis that in addion to being insuments for bg events (which may have other features not covered by any descrpon) anguages are aso sp of events (so that there is a inguisc imit to what can be said in a gven anguage, and ths imit coincides with the its of the thing itse) but it woud go beyond it by including non-inguisc means ofrepresentaon38 The reasc nterpretaon is vey plausibe But it must not be taken for ganted39 It must not be taken for granted for there are technca faiures special purposes (carcature) which may change a style without changng the cosmolo We must also emember that humans have oughly the same neurophysioogcal equipment, so that percepon cannot be bent in any direcon one chooses40 And in some cases we can ndeed show that devaons from a 'faithful enderng of nature cu in the presence of a detaied knowledge of the object and side by side with moe 'ealisc presentaons: the workshop of the scupto Thuosis in Tel alAmaa (the ancient Achet-Aton) contans masks directy taken from live models with all the detas of the foaon of the head (indentaons) and of the face intact, as well as heads developed from such masks Some of these heads presee the detais, othes eliminate them and eplace them by simple fos An extreme example is the completely smooth head of an Epan man t poves that 'at least some arsts remained consciously independent of nature41 Durng the reign of Amenophs (C 3637) the mode of epresentaon was changed twce the rst change towards a more realisc style, occurred merey our years 3 Cf fote l ad tex of the reset chater 3 or a setch of the roblems that arise the case of ps cf my Rely to Crcsm, Bn S n Ps fS Vol , 165, secos 5 , ad esecially the lst of roblems o 34 Haso Por ad othe te t for
gaed that realsm s coect t may be dere wth dgdced sates, escially whe they are made a o a systemac coe o edcao 4 1 Schfer, o ci, 63.
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after his ascension to the throne which shows that the technical ability for realism ested, was ready for use but was intenonally left undeveloped. A fereom sle or lguge to osmolo d mo ofperto terre ee spel mt t ot be m mer ofoue (A simiar remark applies to any inference from popuar
theories in science such as the theoy of relavity or the idea of the moon of the earth to cosmology and modes of percepon) The argument (which can never be onlusive) onsiss in poinng to harateris features in distant elds If the idiosynrasies of a parular style ofpaing are found also in statuay in the grammar of ontemporay languages (and here espeially in cove lassica ons whih annot be easly twsted around) if it can be shown that these languages are spoken by arss and by the common fok alie if there are phlosophcal prniples formulated in the languages whh delare the idiosynrasies to be features of the word and not just arfacs and whh to acount for their ogn if man and nature have these features not only in painngs but aso in poe in popuar saying in ommon law if the idea that the features are pas ofnoal percepon is not conadited by nythg we know from physiology or from the psyhology of perepon if ater thnkes attak the idiosynraies as 'errors resulng from an ignorane of the 'ue way then we may assume that we are not just deag wth tehnia faiures and parular puoses but wt oer wy of l, and we may eet that people invoved in this way of lfe see the world in the same way in whh we now see ther pitures It seems that all these condons are sased in rcha Greee: the foa suture and the deoogy of the Greek as reonsted both from the text nd from later referenes to t repeat al the peuaes of the ater geome and the eary arhaic stye!2 o sta wth about nine-tenths of the Homeri epis onsst of ul whh are prefabriated phrases extending in engh from a singleword or wo to severl ompete nes and which are repeated at aropriate plaes!3 Onefth of the poems onsist of nes whoy repeated from one plae to another; in 28,000 Homec lnes there are about 25000 repeated phrases Repeons ur aready n Myenaean ou poe and they an be aed to the poe of 4 Webster, op. cit. pp 4 43. In the 0 centu the roe of fouae was deribed and tested by Miman Prry, L pih riiee h omre Pris 1 aard Sdi in lsil Philolo, Vos 41 130 43 13 For a brief account cf. D Page, o and he c Iliad, Bereey, 166 Chapter we as G.S Kir, om and he Epi, bridge, 165 Part I
78
A G A I N S T M E T H OD
easte couts: 'Titles o f gods, kings, and men must be given correctly, and n a coutly world the pinciple of correc expression may be extended further. Royal correspondence is highly formal and this formai is extended beyond the messenger scenes of poe to the formuae used for inoducing speeches Smiarly, operaons are reported in the terms of the operaon order whether the operaon order tsef is gven or not, and this technique is extended to other descpons, which have no such operaon orders behnd them. These compulsions a deve ulmately from the court of the kng, and t s easnabe o suppose that the court in tu enjoyed such forma n poe.44 The condons f (Sumean, Babylonian, Hurian, Hethc, Phoenican, Mycenaean) couts also explan the occurrence of standardzed elements of ott (typcal scenes; the king and the nobles n war and peace fuiture descpn of beauful thngs) which, moving fom c to c, and even across naona boundaes ae epeated, and adapted to local circumstances. The slowly asng combinaon of constan and aable eements that s the result of numerous adaptaons of hs kind was uized by the teate poets of the 'Dark Age of Greece who deveoped a anguage and forms ofexpression tha best see the requirements of orl ompoto The requirement of mo demanded that there be ready-made descpons of events tha can be used by a poet who composes in hs mnd, and wthou the aid of wng The requrement of mtr demanded that the basic descpve phases be t for use in the vaous pats ofthe line the poet s about to complete: Unie the poet who wrtes out his nes [the oa poet] cannot think wthou hury about his next wod, no change what he has made nor, before gong on, ead ove what he has jus wtten . . He mus hae for his use word goups all made to t his erse 45 Eoomy demanded that gen a stuaon and a ceain meca consant (begnnng middle or end of a ine) there be ony one way of connung the narraon and this demand s sased to a susing exent: Al the chief characters of the d and the Ody ifther names can be tted into the ast haf of the verse aong wth an epthe, hae a noun-epthe formula in the nomnave, begnnng with a smple consonant, whch ls the ese between the ochac caesure of the hd foo and the verse end: for in stance, o b 'Ob In a list of thirty-seven characters who have formulae of ths type, whch incudes al those este, cit . 5f 45 M. P aadS Cl. Pl 41 1 930
SIXTEEN
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hg y mportce the poems, there re oly three mes whch he secod oul whch could replce the rst 'I you tke the e grmmc cses the sgulr o ll the ouepthet ormule used or Achlles, you wll d tht you he ortye deret ormule o whch oe hs, the sme cse the sme metrcl lue47 Beg proded or ths mer the Homerc poet hs o terest origl o expresso, or rety He uses or dps herted ormule4 He does ot he choce, do[es] ot ee thk terms o choce; or ge prt o the le whteer decleso cse ws eeded, d wheer the subject mter mgh be, the oulr ocbul suppled t oce combo o words redymde 49 sg the oule the Homerc poe ges ccout o pcl c whch obects re occsol descrbed by 'ddg the prts o tg owor pposo Ides we woud tody regrd s beg ogclly subordte to others re stted seprte, grmmcly coorde proposos Exmple (Ild 9556: Melegros y by hs wedded we r Ceop, dughter o r kled Mrpess, dughter o Eueos, d o Ides, who ws the sogest o me o erth t tht me d he gst lord Phoebus Apollo took up hs bow or the ske o the r-ked md her the ther hlls dd her ther d ldy mother cl by the me o Alkyo becuse d so o, or te more les d wo or three more mjor themes beore mor stop Ths prtcc eure o Homerc poet whch prllels the bsece o elborte systems o ubordte cluses erly Greek5 1 lso mkes t cer why
4 bd pp 8f 47 ibd p 89 48 Page op cit p 230 49 bd p 242 50 Webster op ct pp f; m taics 5 C aphae Khner 2 Tei pted Darmstadt 9 I the 20 cet such a paratacc or simutansc a of pesentaon was used b the ear expessionis fo exampe b Jacob o odds his pm Dem rge iegt om spie Kop der Hut I ae Lfte hat es we Geschei Dachdecker ste ab ud gehn ewe Und a den Ksten iest man stegt die Fut Der Strm ist da die wde Meee hupen A Lad u dcke Dmme u edrcke De meisten Meschen habe ee Schnpfe De Eisebahe ae o de cken
180
AGAST MTHOD
Aphdite is caed sweetly laghing when in act she cmplains tealy (d 5.37 5), why Achiles is caled swit ted when he is sitng taling t Piam (Ild 24559) Jst as in late gemeic pttey (in the 'achaic style Lewy) a dead bdy is a ive bdy bght int the psin death (c abve text t te 30) an eaten id a ive and pcul kd bght int the apppiate ean t the mth a ecis lin in the vey same way Aphite cmpaining is simply Aphdite and that is the laghing gddess sd int the sitan cmpaining in which she pacipates nly extealy witht changing he nate The t trtmt events becmes vey cea in the case (hman) mn In 22298, Achiles dags Hect alng in the dst 'and dst arse and him that was dagged and his dar hai lwed lse n eithe side and in the dst ly his nce ai head that is the procs dragging cntains the stt lying as an independent art which tgethe with ther sch parts cnsttes the mn Speaing me absactly we might say that the pet e is cmpsed mments3 Many the simies assme that the parts a cmplex enty have a ie their wn and can be separated with ease emeica man is a visibe ist parts and psins; Hmeic man is pt tgethe rm imbs sraces cnnecns which ae islated by cmpaing them with inanimate bjects precisely dened shape the n Hipplhs rls thrgh the battle eld lie a log ate Agamemnn has ct his
Vo Hodds cms Homer s recusor elg tt smulte w used by Home ot oder to mke evet moe sret but ode to cete feelg of mmesurbe scousess he Homer descrbes btte d comes te ose of te wes t te bet of woodcuer e merey wts to sow tt whe tere s btte tere s lso te ueess of wds teuted oly by te wok of te woodcuer. Ctsoe cot be tougt tout smuteously tg of some uttey umt evet Te Get s med u t te Sml te mt t te Trvl. (Fo te eo cf.R. Bece xrsinsm, ed. P. Rbe Olte d Febug 65 5 ts so ce so cots descro of te emedous messo vo Hds' egter mde we t rst cme out . Oe cot fer tt te sme messo ws creted te lstee of te Homerc sges wo dd ot ssess comle d romcg medm tt hd deteroted to terfu semetl s bckgoud for comrso 5. Cf Gebd K Daellun msi Bng in !i, Hedelbeg 66 5. 53. Ts s te teo scbed to Zeo by Arstotle Pysi, 3b 3 The teo comes fort most clerly te gumet of te ow: Te ow t lgt s t est Fo f eveytg s t rest whe t occes sce eu to elf d wht s ght t y gve momet wys occues sce equl to tself t cot move (er Pysi, 3b). We cot sy tt te teo ws hed by Zeo hmself bt we my cojecture tt t lyed oe Zeo's me
181
SXT
arms and s head (Il 1 1 146 - o� round stone of cylindrical shape) the body of Hector spins like a top (I 14412) the head of Gorgythion drops to one side 'ike a gr being eavy with fruit and the showers ofspring (Il 8302); 4 and so on Also the formulae of the epic especially the nounepithet combina ons, are frequenty used not according to content but according to metrical convenience 'Zeus changes from counsellor to storm mountain god to pateal god ot in connecon with what he is doing, but at the dictates of mee He is not lt Z when e is gathering couds, but when he is ing the meca unit v - - - ust as the geomeical arst may distort spaa reaons - inoduce contact where none ests and break it where it curs - in order to tel the visual sto in s own parcuar way Tus the poet repeats the formal features used by the geomec and the early archaic arsts Neither seems to be aware of 'underyng substance that keeps the objects together and shapes their parts so that they reect the 'higher unity to which they belong. Nor is such a 'gher unity found in the concepts of the anguage For eample, there is no epression that could be used to describe the human body as a single enty6 Som is the cose, is accusave of specicaon, it means 'in sucture, or 'as regards shape reference to lmbs occurs where we today speak of the body (, limbs as moved by the oints; J imbs in their bodily sength; o , s whole body embed; Qo� J£ QQ£V his body was lled with sength) All we get is a puppet put together from more or ess arculated parts The puppet does not have a soul in our sense The 'body is an aggregae of limbs, unk, moon, the 'soul is an aggregate of 'mental events which are not necessarily private and which may belong o a dierent individual atogether 'Never does Homer in his descripon of ideas or emoons, go beyond a purely spaal, or quantave deon; never does he attempt to sound their specia,
/o
5. K it 55. tmore Ii oHom, Cigo 1 5 1 3f 56. For te folowig f B Snel D o Mind r orbs I 60 Cter Snels views ve been riied bt seem to sive te riism. Cf te reo i F. Kr Unuung zu Hom und Hio naa Heft 6 Gtngen 63 25 In is Gamm S Gtnge 66 1 Snell lso res tt in omer we ever nd nl deision osios oie mde by ng mn being A mn eing wo is fed wt vrios ossiilies never tins "now it dends on me it dends on wt I deide to do'
18
AGAST MTHOD
nonphyscl ntue 57 Acons e nte not by n 'utonomous I but by uthe cons, events, occuences, nclung vne nteeence An ths s pecsely how mentl events e prd 58 Dems, unusul psychologicl ets such s suen emembeng, suen cts o ecognion, suen ncese o vtl ene, ung bttle uing senuous escpe, suen ts o nge e not ony ld by eeence to gos n emons, they e so lt s such Agmemnons em 'listene to hs [Zeus] wos n escene (d, 2 1 6) the dr escens, not gue t 'n t stoo then bese hs [Agmemnons] he n the lieness o Nesto (d 220) One oes not em ( em is no 'subjecve event), one ss (t is n 'objecve event) n one lso sees how t ppoches n moves wy 59 Suen nge, ts o stength e escbe d lt to be vne cts: 60 'Zeus buls up n Zeus imnshes sength n mn the wy he pleses, snce his powe s beyon l othes (d 20241) is not just n objecve escpon (tht my be etene to ncue the behvou o nmls) t so epesses thelg tht the chnge hs entee om the outse, tht one hs been 'le wth song couge (d, 1360) Toy such events e ethe ogotten o ege s puey ccentl 6 But o Home o o ely thought gene, thee is no such thing s ccent vey event s ccounte fo This mes the events clee, stengthens thei objecve fetues, mouls them nto the shpe o known gos n emons n thus tus them nto poweful evence fo the vne pptus th s 57 Sell GammelteSch, 5 C Dodds The Gree and he Iaional Bosto 57, Cpter 5 Wit some eo ts eperiee be repeted eve tody Step 1 : ie do lose yor eyes d ted to yo ypgog llos Step peit te lluos to peed o teir ow d odg to te ow tedeies Tey wll te ge om eves i o ofte eyes o eves tt grdlly sod te vewer bt wtot yet mkg m ve prtipt of o tree dmeso dremspe Sep 3 swt over from vewing te luito evet to bngpa of omple o rel eves wi o te viewe d be ted po by m Sep 3 be reveed eter by te t o lmost oestet will or by osde ose Te teedmesol see beomes twodimesol s ogeter io e frot of te eyes d moves wy t wold be ieesg to see ow su al eemets ge from te to ulte 0 Tody we sy tt somebody is overome by emoos d e my feel is ge s e tig t ivdes im gs is wl Te demo otolo o te Greeks ois objeve emoo for desbg ts fetre of ou emoos and
he til it.
Psyolysis d reled deooges ow gi obue o mkig s
evets p o wde oe d teeby ed tem sbslty Dodds op it p
SIXTN
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used or elainng them: 'The gods are present. To recoge ths a a gven act or the Greeks s the rst condon o comprehending the relgon and ther cutue Ou knowedge o ther presence rests upon an (nner or outer experience o ether the Gods themseves o o an acon o the Gods. 63 To sum up: the archac world s much less compact than the world that suounds us, and t s also experienced as beng less compact chac man acks 'physcal unty, hs body conssts o a multude o pats, lmbs suraces, connecons; and he acks 'menta uny hs 'mnd is composed o a vaey o events some o them not even menta n ou sense which ether nhabit the bodypuppet a addonal constuents or are brought into it rom the ousde Evens ae not hpd by the ndivdual they are complex aangements o pats nto whch the body-puppet is d at the appropriate place 64 This s the worldvew that emerges om an anaysis o the l eatues o 'archac at and Homec poe aken in conjunction wth an analysis o the co which the Homec poet used or describng what he perceves Is man eatues are 63. WiamowiMedorf, D Glube Hell, 1 155 1. Or
coceos of the word sbdivide a otheise ifo materia ad create direces i erceived brighess where obecve brighess has o gradiet The same ress is resosibe for the orderig of the rather chaoc imressios of or ir ife eadig to a (ier) erceo of divie iterferece, ad it may eve ice daemos, gs, srites ito the domai of oter erceos At ay rate there is a sciet mber of daemoic experieces ot to reject this coectre ot of had 64. This meas that sccess is ot the rest of a eot o the at of the idivida bt the foate ttig together ofcircmstaces his shows itsefeve i words ike Qdnv which seem to desigate I Homer sch words emhasize ot so mch the eect ofthe aget as the fact that the rest comes abot i the right way, that the ress that brigs it abot does ot ecoter t may distrbaces it ts ito the other rsses that srrod it (i the Attic diaect Euanw s meas am doig we) Simiary txv emhasizes ot so mch a ersoa achievemet as the fact that thigs go we, that they t ito thir sodigs he same is te of the acqisio of owedge Odysses has se a ot ad xperieced mch, moreover, he is the xv� who ca aways hep himsef i ew ways, ad, ay, he is the ma who istes to his goddess Athea The at ofowedge that is based o seeig is ot eay the rest of his ow acvity ad research, it athe haeed to him whie he was drive arod by extea cicmstaces He is ve dieret from Soo who, as Herodots tes s, was the rst to ave for theoeca reos, becase he w iterested i esearch I Odysses �e kowedge of may thigs is sagey seaated fom his acvity i the ed ofthe (: this acvity is esicted to dig meas for eachig a ceai aim, i oder to save his ife ad the ife of his assiates B. Se, De Geh und Wr, Gtge, 162 p 4 this pace aso a moe detaied aaysis of peret tes Cf aso fote 56 o the aaet oestece ofersoa decisios
184
AGAINST THOD
cd by the individuals using the concepts. T nd l nd n t m knd ofrld tt contd tr t Futher evidence fo the conjectue can be obtained fom an examinaon of 'meta-attudes such as geneal reigious attudes and 'theoies of (attudes to) knowledge Fo the lack ofcompacess just descibed eappeas in the eld of ideoogy. Thee is a tolnc in eigious matte which late geneaons found moaly and theoecaly unacceptabe and which even today is egaded as a manifestaon of fivolous and simple minds. 65 Achaic man is a eigious ececc, he ds not object to foeign gods and myths, he adds them to the esng futue of the wold without any attempt at synthesis, o a emoval of conadic ons. Thee ae no priests, thee is no dogma, thee ae no categorical statements about the gods, humans, the wold (This toeance can sl be found with the Ionian philosophe of natue who deveop thei ideas side by side with myth without ying to eliminate the atte.) Thee no eigious 'moali in ou sense, no ae the gods absact embodiments of eteal principes 67 This they became ate, during the achaic age and as a esut they 'lost [thei] humani. Hence Olympianism in its moalized fo tended to become a religion of fea, a tendency which is eected in the eigious vabulay. Thee is no wod fo "godfeaing in the 68 This is how ife was dehumanized by what some peope ae peased to cal 'moal pogress o 'scienc pogess Similar emaks appy to the 'theory of knowledge that is impcit in this ealy wod view. The Muses in I 2284 have knowledge because they are o to things they do not have to ely on mous and because they know all the mn things that ae of inteest to the write, one after the othe 'Quan, not intensi is Homes standad of udgement and of knowedge,69 as becomes clear fom such wods as olqQWV and olic, 'much pondering and 'much thinking, as we as fom late cricisms such as 'Leain of many things [oAUJa9(f] does not teach inteigence. 0 inteest in, and a wish to undetand, mn mng tn (such as eathquakes, eclipses of the sun and the moon, the paadoca rising and faling of the Nile), each of them
65 xme F Seye, Dehe Ksk Ge, Stgt 1966 66 Cf Wlmoendo, o t 6 P Nlsn, A Hto ofGreek Re, Ood, 1949, 152 68 Dds o t 35 69 Snell, eD oftheMd, 8 ets e Dogenes es, I,
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xplaind n ts own parcular wa and wtout th us of unvrsa principls, prsists in th coastal dscripons of th th and 7th (and latr cnturis (which simpl umrt th tribs, ibal habits, and coastal formaons that ar succssivl mt during th jou, and vn a thinkr such as als is satisd with making man intrsng obsrvaons and providing man xpanaons wthout ring to thm togthr in a sstm. (h rst thinkr to construct a sstm' was amandr, who folowd Hsiod Kowldg so concvd is not obtaind b tring to gasp an ssnc nd th rpots of th snss, but b ( putng th obsrvr n th right posion rlav o objct (procss, aggrgat, b insrng him ino th appopriat plac n th complx patt that constuts th wod, and () b addng up th mnts which a notd und ths circumstancs It is th rsult of a complx surv carid out fom suitab vantag points. On ma doubt a vagu pot, o a fthhand account, but it is no possibl o doubt wha on can cla s with on's own s. h ob dpictd o dscbd is th pop arrangmnts of th lmnts which ma includ foshot nngs and oth prspctoid phnomna. 2 h fact tha an oa looks bokn n wat acks h th scpca foc it assums n anoth idoog Just as Achills stng dos no mak us doubt that h is swiftfootd - as a mattr of fact, w woud stat doubng his swifss if i tud out that h is in princip incapab of stng in th vr sam wa th bnt oar dos not mak us doubt that t is prfctl straight n air - as a mattr of fact, w would stat doubng its saighss if it did not ook bnt n watr.4 h nt oa s not 7 e idea a ae ued a prnciple expreing an underlying uniy of natura penomena and at e idenied i principle wi waer i t found in Artoe Meaphyi 8b and A cloer k a i and oer paage and coutaion of Herodotu ugget at e i beong to e group ofoe iker wo dea wi numerou exaordia peomea, wiout yig em togeer i a yem. Cf e vvd preetation i F Kra, Gchiche Naucha l, reiburg, 7 , Capter . 7 Perpectoid penomena are omeime treated a if ey were pecial propee of e object depiced For example, a cotainer of e Old Kingdom (Anciet Egyp) a an indentaon on top, idicatig pecive, but e idetao i preeted a a feature of e obec itef, cfer, op cit, p. ome reek at to nd ituao were pepecve doe ot eed to be coidered u e pecuiariy ofe ocaed redgure yle at arie i about 5 BC d no o muc conit in e fact a foreoeig are drawn, bu i e ew and igly vae way to circumvet em', E. Pful, Mal und Zchnun Gech Vol I Munich, 1923, p. 378
7 C e diuio i Capter of A. Ayer Founon o Empcal noee. e example w familiar in aquiy 4 Ti i ao e way i wic J .. Aun tae care of e cae Cf. e and
8
I MH
an pe that denies what another pe says about the naue of the oar, it is a parcuar pa (stuaon) of the rea oar that s not ony ompable with its saighess but that demands it: the objects of knowedge are as addve as the visibe ists of the archaic arst and the situaons described by the archaic poet Nor s there any unifo concepon of knowledge75 A great variety of words is used for expressg what we today regard as derent for of knowedge or as dierent ways of acqung knowedge o(a76 means experse a cea rofesson (carpenter singer, general, physcan charoteer, wrestler) cuding the as (where t praises the arst not as an outstandg creator but as a master of is craft); ELOEVat iteray 'havng seen refers to knowedge gaed from specon V especay the though often ansated as 'isteng or 'understanding s songer, t contains the dea of folowng and obeyng one absorbs something and acts accordance with t (hearng may pay an impoant role) d so on Many of these expressons enta a recepve attude on the pa ofthe knower, he as t were acts out the behaviour of the thngs around , he folows them, 7 he ac as bets an enty that s inseed at the pace he cupies To repeat and to concude the modes of representaon used durng the eary archaic perod in Greece are not just reecons of competence or of specal arsc interests they gve a faithfu account of what are fet seen thought to be fundamenta features of the word of archac man Ts word is an open word Its eements are not foed or held together by an 'underlyng substance, they are not appearances from wich this substance may be inferred with diculty They casonay coaesce to fo assembages The reaon of a single eement to the assembage to wich t beongs s lke the reaon of a pa to an aggregate of pas and not lke the reaon of a pa to an overpowerng whole The arcular aggregate caed 'man visted, and occasionay inhabited by 'menta events ensbl e Yr I 2 t s cler tht prbles sch the prble the estence therecl enes cnnt se under these ccstnces ether these prbles re atd the ne pprch tht speeded the ddve del rchc nd perchc mes 5 nell Di Asd r f Ws in ton Pisi erln I 24 sh ccnt s ven n nell Di a/t G ir pp 4 I Cf ls vn F Pisi srAsdk Dot, Po Atot epPndn 8 6 nly cence n He I 5 42 cncen the £ f center (n epe center' nsltes te) Cf Asdk p 5
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Such events may reside n him, they may also enter from the outside Like eve other object man s an exchange staon o nuences rather than a unique source of acon, an 'I (Descartes 'cogto has no point of attack n this world, and his argument cannot even start here s a great smarty between ths view and Machs cosmoo ecept that the eements of the archac world are recogniabe physical and menta shapes and events whie Machs eements are more absact, they are as yet unknown of research, not ts o In sum, the representaonal unts of the archac word view admit of a reasc interpretaon, they express a coherent ontoo, and Wors obseaons apply At ths point I inteupt my argument in order to make some comments whch connect the precedng obseaons with the probems ofscienc method 1 It may be objected that foreshortenngs and other indcaons of perspecve are such obvious features of our perceptua world that they cannot have been absent from the perceptua world of the Ancents he archac manner of presentaon is therefore incom pete, and ts reasc interpretaon incorrect Repy: Foreshortenings are not an obvious feature of our percep tua wod uness speca attenon s drawn to them (in an age of photography and this s rather frequenty the case Uness we are professona photographers, m-makers, panters we perceive t not ps Movng sfty among compex objects we noce much ess change than a percepon of aspects would permt Aspects, foreshortenngs, f they enter our conscousness at al, are usualy suppressed just as afterimages are suppressed when the appropriate stage of perceptua deveopment s completed 8 and they are noced in speca stuaons only ?9 In ancient Greece such speca stuaons arose n the theae, for the rstrow viewers o the impressve producons of Aeschyus and Agatharchos, and there s indeed a schoo that ascribes to the theae a decsve nuence on the development of perspecve 80 Besdes, why shoud the perceptual word of the ancent Greeks concde with ours It needs more argument than reference to a nonestent form of percepon to consolidate the objecon
8 Cf fote 2 and te of the preset chapter 9 Cf fooote 80 Cf Pa ofHedwig Kenner D ea und Realm in Ghh uns Viena l 954, epealy pp l 2 l f
188
A A N T T H OD
2. Th procdur usd for stablishing th pculiaris o f th archaic cosmology has much in common with th mthod of an anthropologist who xamins th wordviw of an associaon of tribs. Th dirncs ar du to th scarcity of th vidnc and to th parcular circumstancs of its origin (writtn sourcs; wors of art; no prsonal contact) Lt us ta a closr oo at ths procdur! anthropologist trying to discovr th cosmoogy of his chosn ib and th way in which it is mirrord in anguag, in th as, in daily lif, rst las th anguag and th basic social habits; h inquirs how thy ar rlatd to othr activis, including such pm unimportant acvis as miling cows and cooing mals; 8 h tris to idn y idas. 82 His attnon to minua is not th rsult of a misguidd urg for compltnss but of th raizaon that what loos insignicant to on way of thining (and prciving) may play a most important ro in anothr. (Th dirncs btwn th papr-andpncil opraons of a Lorntzian and thos of an instinian ar on minut, if discibl at al; yt thy rlct a major clash of idologis.) Having found th y idas th anthropologist tris to utd thm. This h dos in th sam way in which h originally gaind an undrstanding of his own anguag, including th languag of th spcial profssion that provids him with an incom. H tl th idas so that thir conncons ar rmly ngravd in hs mmo and his racons, and can b producd at wil. 'Th nav socity has to b in th anthropologist himslf and not mrly in his notboos if h is to undrstand it83 s pross must b kt om tl tr. For xamp, th rsarchr must not y to gt a bttr hold on th idas of th trib by lining thm to idas h arady nows, or nds mor comprhnsib or mor prcis On no account must h attmpt a 'ogical rconstrucon Such a procdur would him to th nown, or to what is prfrrd by crtain groups, and would forvr prvnt him from grasping th unnown word viw h is xamining. Having compltd his study, th anthropologist carris within himsf both th nav socity and his own bacground, and h may now start comparing th two. Th comparison dcids whthr th nav way of thining can b rproducd in uropan trms (providd thr is a uniqu st of' uropan trms), or whthr it has a logic of its own, not found in any Wst anguag In th cours 81 EvaPritchard, S Athol, New rk, 196 p. 80 82. bid., p 80 83 ibid p 82.
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of the comparison the anthropologist may ephase cerain nave deas in Engish. This does not mean that Engsh spok it ot compaso aleady contains nave ideas It means that lanages can be bt n many direcons and tha understanding does no depend on any parcuar set of ues 3 The examnaon of key ideas passes though various stages, none of which eads to a complete claricaon Hee the eseache must execse rm conol over his uge fo instant clari and logcal pefecon He must neve to make a concept ceae than s suggested by the maerial (except as a tempoary ad fo furhe eseach) It s ths materia and not his logca inuon that determines the conent of the concepts To take an example The Nue, a Nioc be which has been examined by Evans-Pritchad, have some inteesng spao-empoal concepts84 The esearcher who is not too famla with Nue thought nd the concepts 'uncea and insucienly pecise To impove matters he mght eplcang them, using mode logica noons That mght create clea concepts, but they woud no longe be Nue concepts If, on the othe hand, he wans to ge concepts which ae both clear and Nue, then he mus keep hs key noons vae and incompete util t gt iatio com alog ie un ed study tus up the mssing eements which, taken by themseves, ae just as uncea as the eements he has aready found Each item of informaon is a buiding blk of understanding, which means tha t has to be claried by the discovery of furher blks from the language and ideoogy of the trbe ather than by pemature denions Statements such as ' the Nuer canot speak of me as though t was something actua, which passes, can be wated for, can be saved, and so forh I do not think that they eve eperience the same feeing of ghng against me, o of having to cordnate acvies with an abstact passage of me, because their pints of refeence ae mainy the acvies themseves, whch ae geneally of a leisurely characte 85 are eithe buding bocks in ti case the own content is incompete and not fuy undestood tey ae pelimnary attempts to ancipate the arangement of the oalty of all blks They must then be tested, and elucdated by the dicove of furher blocks athe than by logcal caricaons (a cild ea the meaning of a word not by ogcal claricaon but by 84. Eas- Pritchar, he, Ofo, 190, Pa ; cf aso the rief accont in
SoclAnthrolog, pp.
1 02f.
85 e, 103.
10
AGAN MHOD
realizing how it goes together with things and other words). Lack of carity of any parcuar anthropoogical statement reects the scarcity of the materia rather than the vagueness of the ogical intuions of the anthropoogist, or of his ibe. 4 Exacty the same remarks appy to any atempt to expore important mode noons such as the noon ofincommensurabiity. Within the sciences incommensurabiity is cosey connected with meaning. A study of incommensurability in the sciences wil therefore produce statements that contain meaning-terms but these tes wi be ony incompletey understood, just as the te 'me is incompetey understood in the quotaon of the preceding paragraph Thus the remark that such statements shoud be made ony aproducon of a cear theo of meaning86 is as sensibe as the remark that statements about Nuer me, which are the materia that l to an understanding ofNuer me, shoud be written down ony after such an understanding has been achieved. 5 Logicians are iabe to object They point out that an examina on of meanngs and of the reaon between terms is the tak of loc not of anthropoogy Now by ogic one may mean at east two dierent things. 'Logic may mean the study of, or resuts ofthe study of, the suctures inherent in a certain type of discourse And it may mean a parcuar ogica system, or set of systems A study of the rst knd beongs to anthropoogy For in order o see, for example, whether AB v A A is part of the 'loic of uantum theo we sha have to study uantum theo And as quantum theo is not a divine emanaon but a human product, we shall have to study it in the fo in which human products usualy are avaiabe, that is, we sha have to study historica records textbooks, origina papers, records of meengs and privae conversaons, eters, and the ike (In the case of quantum theo our posion is improved by the fact that the ibe of uantum theorecians has not yet died out Thus we can suppemen historica sudy with anthropoogica ed work such as the work of Kuhn and his coaborators 87) 86 Ahintein Minnoa Sudi in he Philohy ofSe Vo. 4, Minneai, 970 p 224 ay that Feyeraend owe[] u a theo of meaning an Hempe i prepared to aept inommenuraiity ony a the noon of meaning invove in it ha een made ea, op it, p 56 87 Repo in uhn, JL Heiron, P Foan and Alen, Sur r he Ho ofQnum P, Amean Phiophia iety Phiadephia, 967 he mtea eme under the pogramme deed in thi re an onuted at vaiou univeie, the Univerity of Caifoi in erkeey among them.
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t i t be admited hat hee rerd d nt, by themeve, prdue a uqu un t ur prbem But wh ha ever aumed that they d? Hitria rerd d nt prdue a unique un fr hitria prbem either, and yet nbdy ugget that they be negeted. There i n dubt that the rerd are s fr a gia tudy in the ene examined nw. The quen i hw they hud be usd We want t diver the uture f the ed f diure, f whih the rerd give an inmpete aunt We want t ea abut it withut hanging it in any way. In ur exampe we are nt intereted in whether a pd quantum mehani f the ture empy AB v A = A r wheher an to f ur wn, whether a ittle bit f renun whih hange the the hat it nfrm t me preneived prinipe f mde gi and readiy prvide the anwer empy that prinipe We want t knw whether quantum the ul prsd pyts empy he prinipe Fr it i the wrk f the phyiit and nt the wrk f the renunit we want t examine And thi wrk may we be f nadin and aunae It gi (in he ene in whih I am nw uing the term) may we be igial when udged frm he pint f view f a paruar ytem f frma gi Putng the quen in thi way we reaize that it may nt admit f any anwer There may nt et a inge the, ne quantum the, that i ued in the ame way by a phyiit The dierene between Bhr, Dira, Feynman and vn Neumann ugget that thi i mre than a ditant pibility T tet the pibiity ie t eiher eiminate it r t give it hape, we mut exane nrete ae Suh an examinan f nrete ae may then ead t the reult that quantum thereian dier frm eah ther a widey a d Cathi and the variu type f Prtetant: they may ue the ame text (thugh even that i dubul ut mpare Dira with vn eumann), but they ure are ding dierent hing th them. The need fr anthrpgia ae tudie in a ed that iniay eemed t be dminated by a ingle myth, away the ame, alway ued in the ame manner, indiate that ur mmn knwedge f iene may be everey defeve. It may be enrely mitaken (me mitake have been hinted at in the preeding hapter). In thee irumtane, the ny afe way i t nfe ignrane, t abandn renun, and t tart tudying iene frm rath. We mut apprah iene ike an anhrpgit apprahe the mena ntrn f the mediine-men f a newly divered aian f ibe. And we mut be prepared fr the dive that thee ntrn r widy igial (when udged frm the pint fview f
1
AGAN MHOD
a pacula sstem o omal logc and ve o be wldl llogcal n ode to uncon as the do 6 Onl a ew phlosophes o scence nteet logc n ths sense howeve Onl ew phlosophes ae pepaed to concede that the basc stuctues that undele some newl dscoveed idom mght de adcall om the basc stuctues o the moe amila sstems o omal logc and absolutel nobod s ead to admt that ths mght be ue o scence as wel Most o the me the 'logc n the sense dscussed so a o a pacula language o o a theo s ediatel dened wth the eatues o a pacula logcal sstem wthout consdeing the need o an nqu conceing the adequac o such an dencaon Poesso Giedmn o eample88 means b 'logc a avouite sstem o hs whch s al compehensve but b no means all-embacng Fo eampe t does not contan no could t be used to omulate Hegels ideas And thee have been mathemacans who have doubted that t can be used o epessng nomal mathemacs A logcal stud o science as Gedmin and his ellow logcans undestand t s a stud o sets o omulae o ths sstem o the stuctue the popees o the ulmate con stuents ntenson etenson etc o the consequences and o possble models ths stud does not epeat the eaues an anthopologst has ound n sa scence then ths ethe shows that scence has some aults o that the anthopologst does not now an logc t does not mae the slghtest deence to the logican n ths second sense that hs omulae o look le scenc statements that the re o used le scenc statements and that scence could not possbl gow n the smple was hs ban s capable o undestandng and theeoe egads as the onl pemssble was He ethe does not noce the dscepanc o he egads t as beng due to mpeecons that cannot ente a sasacto account Not once does t occu to hm that the 'mpeecons mght have a posve uo and that scenc pogess mght be mpossble once the ae emoved Fo hm scence s aomacs plus model theo plus coespondence ules plus obseaon language uch a pocedue assumes wthout nocng that thee s an assumpon nvoved that an anthopologcal stud whch ama zes us wth the ovet and the hdden classcaons o science has been completed and that t has decided n avou o the aomac etc etc appoach No such stud has eve been caied out And the bts and peces o eld wo avalable toda manl as the esult o 88. Bth Joual r he Philos of Se, Agst 970 eba 1971 39.
257 and
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the work o Hanson Kuhn Lakatos and the numerous historians who remained untouched by osivisc rejudices show that the ogicians aroach removes not just some inessenal embroideries o science but those ve eatures which which make scienc rogress and thereby science ossibe 7 The discussions o meaning I have auded to are another ilusaon o the deciencies o the ogicians aroach For Giedymn this term and its derivaves such a the term 'incommen surabili are 'unclear and insucienty recise I agree Giedymn wants to make the terms clearer he wants to understand them better Again agreement He es to obtain the cari he ees is ackng by exicaon in terms o a arcuar knd o ormal logic and o the doube anguage model rescng the discussion to 'intension and 'extension as exlained in the chosen ogic It is here that the disagreement starts For the queson is not how meaning and 'incommensurabili occur within a arcuar ogica system The queson is what role they ay n (actual ie non-reconsucted) science Claricaon must come rom a more detaied study o this roe and lacunae must be led with the results o such study And as the ling takes me the key terms wi be 'unclear and insucienty recise recise or or years and erhas decades (See also also items 3 and 4 above) 8 Logicians and hlosohers o science do not see the situaon n this way Being both unwiling and unable to car out an norma discussion they demand that the main terms o the discussion be 'caried And to 'cari the terms o a discussion does not mean to tol and as yet unknown roeres o the domain n study the tol queson which one needs to make them uy understood it means to l them with stg noons rom the enrey dierent domain o ogic and common sense reeraby obseaona ideas unl they sound common themseves themse ves and to take care that the the ress o ng obeys the acceted laws o ogic The dscussion is ermitted to reed ony its inia stes have been moded in this manner So the course o an nvesgaon is deected into the narrow channes o thngs aready understood and the ossibili o un damenta concetua discove (or o undamental concetua change) is consideraby reduced Fundamenta concetua change on the other hand resuoses new word-views and new languages caabe o exressng them Now buildng a new world-view and a corresonding new anguage is a rocess that takes me in science as we as in meta-science The terms o the new anguage become cear ony when the rocess is airy advanced so that each singe word is the cene o numrous numrous ines connecng it with with other words
14
AGAINS MEHOD
sentenc sentences, es, bits o easoning, gestues whch whch sound absurd at rst but whch become perectly easonable once the connecons ae made rments, theoies theoies terms, points oview oview and deba d ebates tes can thee t heeoe oe be claed in at least two dieent ways: (a) in the manne aleady described, which leads back to the amilia amilia ideas and eats the new a a special case o things already alread y understood, understo od, and (b) (b) by incoporaon incoporaon into a lanage o o the uture, which means tt o must l to wit ulid ulid ts d d to us us st stc cssr wic w ic o r l l ofus ofusg g r yt ilbl Just as a chid who stas using wods wihout yet undestanding them, who adds moe and more uncomprehended linisc linisc ragments ragments to his hi s play playu ull acvity, acvity, discovers the sens sense eg gv vg g principle only r he has been bee n acve acve in this this way or a long m the acv acvity ity being a necessa pesupposion oothe nal nal blossoming blossoming oth oth o sense - in the ve same way way the inventor inventor o a new wodview wodview (and the phiosopher o science who tres to understand hs predure) must be able to talk nonsense unl the amount o nonsense ceated by him and his ends is big enough to give sense to al its parts Thee is again again no better account o this pocess than the descpon which John Stua Mill has let let us o the vicissitudes vicissitud es o his hi s educaon. edu caon. eerring to the explanaons which his ather gave him on logcal matters, he wote The explanaons did not make the matter at all clear to me a the me; but they were not thereoe useless; they emained as a nucleus o my obseaons and eecons to cstallise upon the impo o hs general remarks being intepreted to me, by the parcular instances which came under my noce r Building Building a new lanage (o (or undestanding the wod or knowledge) is a process o exactly the same knd ct hat the inial nuclei ae not given, but must be invented We see here how essena it is to lea takng in riddles, and how disastous an eect the drive or instan clarity must have on our undestanding (n addion, such a drive betrays a ather narow and babarc mentality To use wods and phases ph ases in an easy going way without without scunzing them too cuously is not, in general, a mak o beeding; on the conta, conta, there is something low low bred in beng too precise ll these remarks ae rather ivial and can be ilusated
. .'
9 hee is muh moe aomess i this press tha a ationalist wol ever
peit o sspect o een otie Cf on Keist ber ie allmhlihe Verferg g kee Dh Liaturktik, e. Has Meye e Geanke beim Ree' k Stuga 192 pp 7417 Hegel ha a inkling inkli ng of ofthe situaon. Cf C f K K Lwith an an He Su Sudi dia auge uge I Fank 19 p 54 For Mill f Chapte Rieel (es) He fooote 13 heaiteo,, 1 4 Cf lato Theaiteo Cf also ,Atote Heielbeg , p. 379, riiig Aristotles Aristotles eman fo instat instat preision
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by obvous examples Classcal logc aved on the scene only hen thee as sucent agumentave mateal (n mathemacs, hetoc, polcs) to see as a starng pont and a a tesng gound Athmec developed thout any clea undestandng o the concept o numbe; such undestandng aose only hen thee exsted a sucent amount o athmecal 'acts to give t substance n the same ay a pope theoy o meanng (and o ncommen suabl) can ase only ate a sucent numbe o'acts has been assembled to make such a theoy moe than an execse n concept pushng Ths s the eason o the examples n the pesent secon 9 Thee s sll anothe dogma to be consdeed beoe etung to the man naaon It s the dogma that all subjects, hoeve assembled, qute automacally obey the las o logic, o ought to obey the las o logic I ths s so, then anthopological eld ok ould seem to be supeluous 'What s ue n logc s ue n psychol psycholo o n scenc method, and and n the the hstoy hstoy o scence, tes oppe 1 Ths Ths dogmac dogmac assero asseron n s s nethe clea no s s t t (n one o o ts ts man nteetaons) true To start th, assume that the expessons psycholo, 'hstoy o scence, 'anthopolo ee to certan domans o acts and egulaes (o natue, o pecepon, o the human human mnd, mnd , o soce) Then the asseron s s not r as thee s not a sngle sngle subject subject LOGIC LOG IC that that undeles undeles all these these domans domans Thee Thee s egel, thee s Boue, thee ae the many logcal systems consdeed by mode consucvsts They oe not ust deent nteetaons o one and the same bulk o logcal acts, but deent 'acts altogethe And the asseron s not t as thee est legimate legimate scenc statements sta tements hich hich volate simple ogcal rules Fo example, thee ae statements hch play an mportant oe n establshed scenc dscplnes and hch ae obseaonaly adeuate only they ae selcontadctoy: te a movng patte hat has just come to a standsll and you ll see t move n the opposte decon, but hout changing ts poson The only phenomenologcally phenomenologcally adeuate descpon s 't moves, n space, but t does not chan change ge pace and ths descpon descpon s secon seconadcto adctoy y2 9 nowled nowledge ge Oxfo, 972 p 6 Acpate Acpate eg b Comte, Comte, Cu, ZO
Lo a ofcorse Arstote 92 t has bee obecte (Aer G L Owe) that that we ae ae ealg wth appeaaces, appeaaces, ?t wth wth acua acua eve, eve, a that that the the coec coectt escpto escpto s tapp t appear earss to move . . t the the cu emas For fwe fwe oce the appea appea we mst pt t at the begg begg ofthe setece whch wl ea t t appears appears that t moves moves a oes ot chag chag pace' pace ' A ap�eaaces belog to the oma oma of pheomeologcal pheomeologcal pscholo we have have mae ma e o o t, z that ths th s oma oma cotas self-cosst self-cosstet et elemets.
T T ETHOD
Thr ar xampls from gom:93 thus th nlosd gur (whh nd not appar in th sam way to v prson) is sn as an isos isoss s ang whos whos as as is not havd y y th prpndiua prpndiuar r And thr ar xampls with a = & = & a as th ony phnomnoogaly adquat dsripon94 Morovr, thr is not sn or othr fo o ff f f that s usl us l progrssv progrssv as as wl a sngl sn as in agrmnt with ogal dmands. Ev sin ontans thoris whh ar inonsistnt oth with fa and with othr thoris and whh rval onadions whn analysd in dta Ony a dogma f in th prinips of an algdy unfo dspln Log wi ma us disrgard ths stuaon And th ojon that oga prinipls and prinips of say arithm d dr from mpra mpra prnips y not ing assi assi to th mthod mthod of onjtur and rtaons (or for that mattr, any othr mpral mpral mthod) has n df d fusd usd y mor rnt rsarh in ths d95 Sondly t t us u s assum that th th rssons psyholog psyhology, y, anthro anthro pology, hsto of sin physis do not rfr to fa and aws ut to rtan mto of assmling fats inudng rtan ways of onnng osaon with tho and hothss That is, t us odr o dr th sn and various sudivsions Thn w may lay down l mn of nowldg and nowdg aquson, and w may to onsut a (sal) mahn that oys ths dmands Almost all pstmoogsts and phlosophrs of sn prd n ths way Oasionaly thy sud in ding a
3 E. Rbin, ial ire ppareny Incpable ith oe, A Pho/o II, 50, pp. 365 3 65 . C C al al the the rai raing ng on page 67. E. TnejaerRan, Pepctoi Ditanc, A Pho 55 p. p. 27 5. 5 . ainly ainly by th or or f fr r aato Pr Prff an an Rftaon, Rftaon, Bhou ou r h Phs Phs oS, 62/63
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achinery achin ery that mght work work in certain ideal idea l condions, condions, but they t hey never inquire or even nd it worth nquiring, whether the condons are sased in this real world of ours. Such an inquiry, on the other and will have to elore the way in which sciensts deal with their surroundings, it will have to eamine the actual shae of their roduct, viz. knowledge, and the way in which this roduct canges as a result of decisions and acons in cole sial and aterial condions. n a word, such an inquiry will have to be anthroological. Tere is no way ofredi ofredicng cng what an anthrool anthroologic ogical al inquiry will bring brin g to light. light . n the receding chaters, chaters, which whic h are rough sketches sketches of of an anthroological study of arcular eisodes, it has eerged that science is full of lacunae and conadicons, that ignorance, igheadedness, reliance on reudice, lying, far fro imeding the foard march of knowledge ay actually aid t and that the tradional virtues of recision, consistency, honesty, resect for facts, aimum knowledge under gven circumstances, if racsed with determinaon, ay bring t to a standsll. t has also emerged that logcal rincles not only lay a much smaler role n the (arguenave and nonargumentave) moves that advance scence, but that the the attemt to enforc enforcee them would serously imede imed e science. sc ience. (One cannot say that von Neuann has advanced the quantu theory But he h e cetainly ade ade the discussion of its basis more ong winded and cumbersome. 96) Now Now a scienst scienst engaged in a certain iece of research has not yet coleted all the stes that lead to denite results. His future is sll oen. Will he follow the barren barr en and iliterate iliterate logician who reache reachess to i about the the virtues virtues of clarty, consistency, eeri e erimenta mentall suort suort (or eeriental falsicaon), ghess of arguent, honesty, and so on or will he iitate his redecessors in his own eld who advanced bybreakin brea kingg ost of the rues rues ogicians want wan t to to lay on him? h im? Will he rely on abstract inuncons or on the results of a study of concrete eisodes? think the answer is clear and with it the relevance of anthrooogical anthrooogical eld el d work not ust us t for for the anthroologi anthroologists sts but bu t aso for for the ebers of the sociees he eamines now connue my narraon and roceed to descrbing the anson anson fom fom the aratacc aratacc universe of the archaic Greeks to the substanceaeaance univese of their folowers olowers.. 6 sdes th iprecsios whch h reos fro th foas now reappar . th
reao beee theo and fact. fact. Here He re the coesdece pricipe s res sup supee. Cf fote fote 2 of Chapter Chapter
8
A G A I N S E H D
A�
The archaic cosmology (whch from now on I sha call cosmology contains thngs, events, ther pas; t does not conta appearances.9 Complete knowedge ofan object s compete enumeraon ofits pas and pecuiaries Humans cannot have complete knowedge There are too many things, too many events, too many situaons ( 2488) and they can be cose to ony a few of them ( 2485) But athough humans cannot have complete knowedge, they can have a sizeabe amount of t The wider ther experience, the greater the number of adventues of thngs seen heard, read, the greater their knowedge 9 The new cosmoo (cosmoogy B) that arises n the 7th to 5th centuries disngu!shes between much-knowing, 3OAUJ, and ue knowedge,99 and it was against usn 'custom bo of manifod experience, £� 3OA3ELQOV1 Such a disncon and such a wag make sense ony in a world whose scture diers from the sucture of In one version whichplayed a large role in the deveopment of Weste con and whch underlies suchprobems the probem ofthe estence oftheoreca enes and the probem of aienaon the new events fo what one ght ca a Wor while the events of eveday life are now rnc that are but ts dim and seadng reecon101 The Te Word is simpe and coherent, and it can be described in a unifo way So can eve act by whch ts eements ae compehended: a few absactnoons epace the numeous concepts that were used in cosmoo for describing how humans ght be inseed into their suroundngs and for expressing the equay numerous types ofinformaon thus gained From now on there is ony one impoant type of informaon and that is owldg
A.
A
Snl, Adk, 2 (rfrrn to Hor), a of a nod that rd fro aaran and dra thr td tothr n a nt hh n otd a thr n'. ay ay to th Prra t d not ay to Hor In th a of Hor th ord orhndd a th of thn, v n a, and not a ron an ntnvy (d, . , dn Edo ao th n folon th qotaon for a fhr aoraon of th th). Snl, D G u Wr, 48 Hrat, fr (DKra) 1 Pnd, fr 3. Hr for th t n and raon ar onatd' W.K Gthr, A H fGrk Ph, Vo II, Card I 2 I 01. h dnon haratr of n ythooa v a l. Hor th d oth fro th rdn ythoo and fro th dn hooh H ont of v of rat ornalty n th 2 nt JL An ha dvod ar da. And h ha rzd th dvont fro hal va Pato to th rnt nal f th t hatr ofS a S Chatr 3 ofFar Rn ontan dta.
SIXTEE
The conceptua totataansm that ases as a result of the slow arrival of world B has nteresng consequences, not all of them desirabe. Situaons which made sense when ed to a pacular type ofcognion now become isolated, unreasonable, appareny inconsis tent with other situaons: we have a 'chaos of appearances. The chaos is a drect consequence of the simpicaon ofanguage that accompanes the beief in a True Word 02 Moreover, all the manifod abiies of the obseers are now directed towards this True Word, they are adapted to a u aim, shaped for o pilr puose they become more simiar to each other which means that humans become impoveshed toge1er with their anguage They become impoveshed at precisey the moment they discove an autonomous 'I and proceed to what some have been pleased to cal a more advanced noon of God (aegedly found in Xenophaes), which is a noon of God lacking the rich vaety of typically human features. 03 'Mental evens which before were eated in anao ith evens of the body and which w d rdig become moe subjecve they become modicaons, acons eveaons ofa spontaneous soul: the disncon between appearance (rst impression, mere opnion) and reaity (e kowedge) spreads evewhee Even the task of the ast now consiss n arrangng his shapes in such a manner that the underyng essence can be gasped ith ease In paing this eads to he development of what one can ony call systemac mehods for deceivig the eye: the archaic ast eas the suface on which he pains as a ter mght eat a piece of papyrus; it a eal surface it is supposed to be s as a real suface (hough attenon is not aways directed to it) and the marks he draws on it ae comparable to the ines of a bueprnt or the letters of a word. Theyae symbos that i the eade ofthe sturotob ofits parts, of the way i which the parts are reated to each other. The simpe drawng oveeaf, fo exampe may epesent thee paths meeng at a pont The arst usig perspecve on the othe hand, egads the surface and the marks he pus on it asstimuli that gge the iusio of an arangement of thee-dimensona obecs The illusion ccus because he human mind is capabe of poducng iluso experiences when properly smulated The dawing is now seen
�
102 Sell, Ad pp. 80f; v F, Pe ud r Ad b D P uA epgaid 938 p I I 103 i becmg e embmet f smi jse Zeus lt hma ee Olympasm i ts maled f teded t beme a elg f fea . , ds Gree p 35. F Xephaes f. Chapte 2 fFreo Re 1 Sell, p 69
AGAIN ST METHOD
either the coer oa cube that exend toward the vewer or a the coe oa cube that pot away rom him (and i een rom beow) or ee a a pane oang above the uace o the paper carying a two dimeniona drawng o thee path meeng
Combing th new way o eeng wth the new concept o knowedge that ha jut been decibed we obta new ene phyca object they are undertood by mot contemporary phioopher o expa et me an take the cae o the oar In the archac vew 'the oar a compex conng opar ome o which are object ome uaon ome event It pobe to ay 'the aght oar boken (ot 'appear to be broken) jut a t pobe to ay wtooted Achie wakg owy, or the eement are not et agat each other hey ae pat o a paraacc aggregate Jut a a aveer expore a part o a ange coun and decribe them a peiege that enumerate it pecuiare, one by one the ame way the tudent o impe object uch oar boat hore peope ert hime to the major oarituaon apprehend them the appropriate way, and eport them a it o propere event, reaon And jut a a detaied peiege exhaut what can be ad about a coun, the ame way a detaed t exhaut what can be ad about an object 05 'Boken water beong to the oa a doe 'aght to the hand it 'equay rea In comoogy B, however 'broken wate a 'embance that cotrs what uggeted by the embance o aghe and thu how the bac unutworthne o a embance 06 he concept o an object ha changed rom the concept oan aggregate o equiimpoant pecepbe part to the concept o an impercepbe I 05 The dea ha owedge conssts n reahes ba far to the Smea pat Cf von Soden Lung und Gr Sumh-Bonh Wha, ew ed Dastadt I 65 The derene between abyonan ad Gree mahemas and aonomy es pesey n hs The one deveops mehods for the presentaon of what we tay a phenomena and whh were nteresng and reevant events n he s whe the othe e to deveop asonomy whe eavng the heaven aone ato 530bf; I a I06 Xenophane fr 3
SXTEEN
01
ssence undelyng a ultude o decepve phenoena (We ay gess that the appeaance o an object has changed n a sla way, that object now look les 'at than beoe Consdeng these changes and peculaes t s plausble to assue that the copason o A and ntrtd t ppnts (athe than as 'econstucted by logcally well-taned but othewse llteate outdes wl ase vaous pobles In the eande o ths chapte only soe aspect o soe o thee pobles wl be dscussed Thus I shall baely enon the psychologcal changes that accopany the anson o A to and whch ae not just a atte o conjectue, but can be estabshed by ndependent eseach Hee s ch ateal o the detaled study o the ole o aewoks (ental sets, languages, odes oepesentaon and the lts oraonas To stat wth cosos A and coos ae but ro deent lmnts The eeents oA ae elavely ndependent pats o objects whch ente nto exteal elaons They pacpate n aggegates wthout changng ther nnsc popees The natue o a pacular agggate s detened by t pats and by the way n whch the pats are elated to each other Enumrt tps n tpr orr ndyou t ob Ths apples to physcal aggegates, to huans (nds and bodes, to anas, but t aso appes to oca aggegates such a& the honour o a warro The eeents o all nto two classes: essences (objects and appeaances (o objects what ollows s ue only o soe ather steaned versons o Object (events, etc ay agan cobne They ay o haonous totales where each pat gves eanng to the whole and receves eanng o t (an extee case s aendes where solated pats ae not only unecognzabe, but altogether unthnkable Aspects properly cobned do not produce obs but psychologcal condons or the apprehenson o pntoms whch ae but othe aspects, and pacuarly sleadng ones at that (they look o convncng No numrton ops ntl wt t ob (poble o nducon The tanson o A to thu noduces new enes and new elaons between enes (ths s seen ve clearly n panng and tatu a It aso chnges the concept and the eexpeence o huans An achac ndvdual s an asseblage olbs connecons, tunk, neck, head, 07 (she s a puppet set n oon by outde orces 10 To be preise Homer does not even ave a wods for the as and the egs; e speas of ads lowe as upr as feet alves and ths. No is thee a compeensive te fo the n' Snel apte I , fote
0
AGAINST METHOD
such as enemies, socia circumstances feelgs (which are descrbed and perceved a objecve agences - see above): 'Man is an open target of a eat many forces which mpinge on hm and peneate his very core He s an exchange staon of matera and spirtual, but aways objecve causes d this s not ust a 'theoreca idea, t is a soca fact Man is not onyscbdin ths way he spurd ths way and he hmsef to be constuted this manner e does not possess a cenal agency of acon a spontaneous 'I that produces s ow deas, feeligs tenons and ders from behaviour, soca situaons, 'mental events of type A. Such an I is nether menoned nor is t noced It is nowhere to be found within A But t plays a very decsve roe within B Indeed, t is not impausbe to assume that some outsand ecuiares ofB such as aspects sembances ambgu of feeing 1 enter the stage as a resut of a sabl os scouss. Now one might be incned to expain the ansion a foows: archaic man has a limited cosmoogy; he discovered some thigs, he missed others is universe lac important obects his anguage lac importan concepts, his percepon ac importan sctures Add the mssg eements o cosmos A, the missingterms o anguage A, the mssing sctures o the perceptua world ofA, and you obtain cosmos B, language B percepon B Some me ago I caed the theory underyng such an expanaon the 'hoe theory or the 'Swiss cheese theory oflanguage (and other means of representaon) According to the hole theory every cosmoogy (every anguage every mode of percepon) ha szeabe acunae which can be ed lg g ucagd The hoe heory s beset by numerous dicules In he presen case here is the dicul ha cosmos B does not contain a singe eemen ofcosmos A Neiher commonsense terms, nor philosophical heories; neiher paing and statuary, nor arsc concepons; neither religion, nor heoogica speculaon contain a sge eement of A once he ansion o B has been competed s s a sol! Is ths
y;
0. Emoos o o sprng spotaeousy from man bu are besowe on hm by the gos' b p 2 See aso the aoun earler n the presen haper 0. b. p. 20. 1 10 Cf Sapphos bter-sweet Eros b p 60 l . The fat s ot ey o establsh May presetaons of A nlung some ve etae a sophsate ones are fete by -onep. A eample s quote n fooote 97 to the present haper. Here esewhere only e athropoogal metho a ea to kowege that s more tha a ree on ofwsh thkng A smlar stuaon n the oue of vua eveopment s esrbe the te to fn. 12 of the prese haper.
SIXTEE
fact an accident, or has A some suctura properes that prevent the co-estence of Asituaons and Bsituaons? Let us see! I have already menoned an example that might give us an inkng of a reason as to why B does not have room for Afacts: the drawing beow may e the ntersecon of three paths as presented n accordance wth the principles of Apictures (which are visua ists). Perspecve having een inoduced (either as an ojecve method or as a mental set) it can no onger e seen n this manner Instead ofes on paper we have the ilusion of depth and a threediensiona panorama though of a rather simpe kind There is no way of ncoorang the Apicture into the Bpicture except as pa of this usion But an iusion of a visual list is not a visua list
The situaon ecomes more ansparentwhen we tu to concepts I have said aove that the nature' of an oject (=aggregate) n A is determined y the eements ofthe aggregate and the relaon etween the eements One shoud add that determinaon is closed' n the sense that the eements and their reaons sttt the oect; when they are given then the oect is given as we. For exampe the elements' descried y Odysseus in his speech in Il .225 osttt honour grace respect Aconcepts are thus very simiar to noons such as checmate': given a certa arrangement ofpieces on the oard, there is no way of discovering' that the game can s e onnued Such a discovery' would not a gap it woud not add to our knowedge ofpossile chess posions, it woud put an end to the game nd so would the discovery' of real meanings' ehind other oves and other constelaons Precisely the same remarks appy to the discovery' of an individua I that is dierent from faces ehaviour, ojecve mental states' of the tpe that occur in A to the discovery' of a sustance ehind appearances' (foery eements of A) or to the discovery' that honour may e lacking despite the presence of its outer anifestaons A statement such as Heracitus' you coud not nd the limts ofthe sou though you are aveing every way so deep is its logos (Dies B 45) does not ust to cosmos A, it ts
04
A G A I N S M E H D
the princples whch re neee in the consucon of Atype mentl sttes whle Hercltus rejecon of AUaSCT n Prmenes rejecon of n £eo� AQV unercuts rules tht gove the construcon of e sgl of A An enre worlview, n enre universe of thought, speech, percepon is ssove It s interesng to see how this process of ssoving mnfests tself in prcur cses In hs long speech in Il, 9 308, Achies wnts to s tht honour m be bsent even though ll ts outer mnfestons re present. The terms of the nguge he uses re so nmtel e to ente sl stuons tht he hs no lnguge to express hs isllusonment. Yet he expresses t, n n remrkbe w. He oes t b misusng the lnguge he sposes of He quesons tht cnnot be nswere n mkes emns tht cnnot be met12 He cts n most rronl w The sme irront is foun n the wrings of l other erl uthors. Compre wth A the Presrcs spek sngel nee So o the lrc poets who expore the new possbies of seloo the hve iscovere Free from the fetters of wellconsucte n unmbguous moe of expresson n thinking, the elements of A ose their fmiir funcon n strt ong roun messl the chos of sensons rises. Free from rm n unmbguous si stuons feelngs become leeng mbvlent conctor I ove, n I love not; I rve, n I o not rve, wrtes Ankreon.1 3 Free from the rules of lte geomec pnng the rsts prouce snge mxtures of perspecve n blueprint14 Seprte from welletermne pschologcl sets n free of their resc import, concepts m now be use hypothec wthout n oum of lng n the rts m begin exploring possble worls in n imgnve w 115 This is the sme step bck which ws erer I 12. A Pa h Langag of Achl Trns. P. Am Phil. Asso., 8, I 56 p 6 Cf. th dcon of th ca n Farll to Ron, Chaptr I 0 I 13 Anthologia Ly, fr 7 I 14. Pfhl op ct cf ao J ht P in Ant Drawing an Pinting, London 165 I 5 Pltarch rport th followng to n h L ofSolon hn th copany of hp gan to ht agdy, and novty wa atacng th plac t had not yt got a far a plc copon Soon ng fond of ltnng and lang and ng rathr gvn n h old ag to lr and ant and ndd o drnng pa and c wnt to hp act n h o play w rac n annt Solon approachd h ar th rfoanc and d f h not had to tll o any l to o any opl hn hp d thr w nothng dradl n rprnng ch wor and acon n n Solon th grond volnly wth h walng c: If w alad th thng n " h d
SIX
seen to be a necessary presupposion of change and, possibly, progress 16- onyt now does not just dscard obseaons, t dscards some mpoant standards of raonality as well. Seen from A (and also from he point of vew of some later deologes) al hese tkers poes, arss, are ravng manacs Remember he crcumsances whch are responsble for hs suaon We have a point of vew (heory, framework cosmos mode of representaon) whose elemens (conceps 'facs, pcures) are built up n accordance wh certan prncples of conscon The prnciples involve somehng ike a closure: here a hngs hat cannot be said, or discovered, whout volang he prnciples (whch does omean conadicng hem) Say he hngs, make he discovery, and he prnciples are suspended Now ake hose conscve prnciples hat underlie every element of he cosmos (of the heory) every fact (every concept) Let us cal such prncples ul ppl of he heory n queson Suspending unversal prnciples means suspendng all fac and al conceps Finaly, let us cal a dscovery, or a statement, or an aude commurb wh the cosmos (he heory, he framework) if it suspends some of is universal prncples Heraclius B 5 is ncommensurable with he psychoogcal part of A: it suspends he rues hat are needed for consung ndivduals and pus an end to al A-facs about indivduals (phenomena correspondng to such facs may of course persst for a consderable me a not all concepual changes ead to changes n percepon and a here est concepua changes hat never eave a ace in he appearances; however, such phenomena can no onger be bed n he cstomary way and cannot therefore cont a obseaons of he customary objecve facs) Note he tentave and vague naure of ths explanaon of incommensrabe and he absence of ogcal termnology. The reason or he vagueness has aready been explained (tems 3 and above) The absence of ogc is due to he fact hat we dea wh henomena oside of i doman My purpose is to nd termnology e sha sn n oees honong them n eaest"' he sto seems histocally mpossible yet eiates a iesprea atte for ths atte f hapter 8 of John Foye Gr r H, e or, 6) Solon hmself seems to hae been somehat le mpresse by aonal fo of thoht an he may hae been one of the rst ma ato of the polal aety) lse, gn and Ear Fo oTrag ambge 165 pp he opposite atte hih reeals the sere an alreay somehat oneite en of , s epree by Smonies ho ansere the qeson hy the hessaa ere not eee by hm saying ecase they e t stp. Plrh, D a p 1 16. hapter I I , tet to fote 5
20
AGAINST MTOD
o descbng cetan compex hstocaanthopoogca phenomena whch ae ony mpeecty undestood athe than denng popees oogca systems that ae specied in detai Tems, such as unvesa pncpes and suspend ae supposed to summaze anthopologca nomaon much n the same way n whch Evans Ptchads account o Nue e (text to ooote 8) summazes the anthopoogca nomaon at hs dsposa (c aso the be dscusson n tem 3 above) The vaeness o the expanaon eects the ncompeteness and complety o the mateal and nvtes acuaon by uthe eseach The expanaton has to have som content othese t woud be useess But t must not have too muc content o else we have to evse t eve second ne Note aso that by a pncpe I do not smpy mean a sttt such as concepts appy when a nte numbe o condons s sased o knowedge s enumeaon o dscete eements which om paatacc aggegates but the mmtcl bt coespondng to the statement The to statements ust quoted descibe the habt o egading an obect as gven when the st o its pats has been uly pesented This habt s suspended (though not conadcted) by the cour that even the most compete st does not exhaust an obect t is o suspended (but agan not conadcted) by any unceasng seach o new aspects and new popees (It s theeoe not easbe to dene ncommensuabty by eeence to state ments 7) I the habt is suspended then A obects ae suspended wth t one cannot examne Aobects by a method o conectues and eutaons that knows no end How s the iaonalty o the anson peod ovecome? It is ovecome in the usua way (c tem 8 above) e by the detemned poducon o nonsense un the matea poduced s ch enough to pemt the ebes to evea and eveone ese to ecognze new unvesa pincipes (Such eveang need not consist in wng the pincpes down n the om o clea and pecse statements) Madness tus nto sanity povded t s sucenty ich and sucenty ea to uncon as the bass o a new woldvew And when tt happens, then we have a new poblem how can the od vew be compaed wth the new vew? Fom what has been sad t is obvous that we cannot compae the cotts o A and B Aacts and Bacts cannot be put sde by side not even n memo pesenng Bacts means suspending pncples 1 17. is akes cae of a cicsm i foe 63 of Saee's acle in Mnd a Como sb 1966. e cassicaios acieved b e inciles ae cove in e sense ofWof: cf above foe 4 ad e do o foe 9.
IXTEEN
07
assumed in the consucon of A-facts. Al we can do is draw B pictures ofA-facts in B, or inoduce Bstatements ofAfacts into B We cannot use A-statements of A-facts in B Nor s it possble to trslt language A into language B This does not mean that we cannot dsss the to views but the discussion lead to sizeable changes of both views (and of the languages in which they are expressed). Now it seems to me that the elaon between, say, casscal mechanics (interpreted eascaly) and quantum mechancs (inter peted n accodance with the views of Nies Boh), o beteen Newtonan mechancs (intereted eaiscaly) and the geneal theo of reavity (also interpeted eaiscaly) is in many espects simila to the elaon beteen cosmoo A and cosmolo B Thus eve fact of Newton's mechancs presumes that shapes, masses, periods are changed ony by physcal interacons and ths presumpon s suspended by the theo of reavity Smiarly the quantum theo constutes facts in accodance with the uncertainty reaons which are suspended by the classca appoach At ths point it s mpoant to interpet the stuaon in a sensble manne of ese scenc (cutua) change becomes an inexplicable mace. The dea that compehensve ways of g, acng, perceivng such as cosmolo A (and, in a much moe naow domain, casscal physcs) and cosmoo B (eavity o quantum mechanics) ae cosed famewoks with ed ues ceates an unbridgeable gulf beteen situaons which, though dierent in surprising ways, are yet connected by aguments, alusons, borrowings, anaogies, geneal prncples of the knd elaned in the text above. Logcans who conne the te agument' to chans of reasoning involvng stabe and pecse concepts and who econsuct theories and woldviews using equaly pecise and unambiguous tems are foced to cal such connecons aonal' whle thei opponents can epot the dscove' that science, that aleged songhold of eason, often violates eason in a decisive way Both ae talkng about chimaeas, not about scence and cutue as they eay are Things change when we use scienc pacce o cutual ealty nd not logc as our infomants, in othe wods, when we engage in sciological esearch, not n econsucon e then dscove that scienc concepts (and concepts, shapes, pecepts, styes in general) are ambguous in the sense that decsve events can aect thei appeaance, thei peceived mplicaons and, with them, the logic' they obey. Achiles (see the text to fooote 1 1 2 above) suses the language he has at his disposal by asserng a dierence between real honour and its socia manfestaons Asserng
08
AGAINS MHOD
dierences is no in conc wi vew A; for example ere s a grea derence beween he knowledge e power he acons of he gods on he one sde and he knowledge e power and he acons of umans on he oher. Assuming ha onour s in he ands of gods wo don give a damn abou he aspraons of humans devalues he social manifesaons of honour makes hem seconda The assumpon s well ino he general oulnes of vew A bu Achilles s he rs o make y? Because his anger his suering makes hm see connecons which because of a widespred opmism are no par of he general vews abou honour and do no conbue o s denion He seems o volae basc sal rules bu vewed wh he aney caused by Agamemnons acons such rules gve way o a dieren idea ha is regarded as being implic n he esng maeral bu as no having surfaced so far. Generalzing we can say ha conceps have poenales over and above he usages ha seem o ene hem is hs feaure ha makes hem capabe of connecng enrey deren concepual sysems More abou his n my (I promise!) as bk T Cout oAbuc.
Append
2
horf speaks of Ideas not of events o of facts, and it s not aways clea whethe he would approve of my extension of hs vews. On the one hand he says that me velocty and matte ae not essenal to the construcon of a consistent picture of the universe 1 and he assets that we cut up natue organize t into concepts and ascrbe signicances as we do lagely because we ae paa to an ageement to oganze it in ths way2 whch would seem to imply that widely derent languages posit not just dierent ideas fo the ordering of the same facts but that they posit also dieent facts The linguisc elavty principle seems to point in the same diecon It says n nfomal tems that users of makedly deent gammas ae pointed by thei gammas towards dieent pes of obseaons and deent evauaons of exteally smila acts of obseaon and hence ae not equvalent obsees but must arrive at somewhat dierent vews of the world. 3 But the moe fomal statements' 4 of the princple aeady contans a deent element fo hee we ae told that al obseers ae not led by te sme pyscl ce to the same pctue of the universe uness thei lnguisc backgounds ae similar or can in some way be calibrated 5 which can eithe mean that obseers using widely dierent languages will post derts under the same physical circumstances n the same physcal wold o t can mean that they will ge mlrs dert wy The seond interpretaon nds some support in the exampes gven where dierent solates of meaning in Engsh and Shawnee are sad to be used in repong te me ece and whee we read that languages classi items of experiene dierenty; 7 experience is
o, op. ct p 16 b p 13 b p. b p 5 bd. p. 1 y tacs 6 bd. p 0 7 bd. p 0
209
10
AGAINS MEHO
egaded as a unifom eseo offacts whch ae ssddeenty by dieent languages t nds futhe suppot n Who s descpon of the anson fom the orv account of baometc phenomena to the mode theo If once these sentences [Why does wate se n a pump? Because Natue abhos a acuum] seemed sasng to ogc but today seem diosyncases of a pacua agon the change did not come about because scence has discoeed new facts Scence has adopted new ngusc fomuaons of the old facts and now that we hae become at home n the new daect cetan taits of the old one ae no onge bndng on us 8 Howee I egad these moe conseae statements as seconda when compaed wth the geat nuence ascbed to gammacal categoes and especiay to the moe hidden appot systems of a anguage 9 Whof and those who foow him egad anguage as the main and pehaps as the only shape of eents That"s much too naow a pont of ew Anmas hae no lanage n the sense ofWof, yet they do not e n a shapeess wod Panets at least as conceed today, ae not een ale, but they aect the suoundngs and eact to them n a awfu manne In humans tuas musc the ats adape behaou that occus without the nteposon of wods make mpotant conibuons to the way in which the wold and to those ng accodingy In the scences we hae not ony statements (the od dea that scence s a system of statements has by now been thooughy dscedted but obseaons expementa equpment an ntue eaon between obsees and the equpment that has to be eaed n a pacca way and cannot be wtten down the wok of expementasts whch has much n common wth the wok of asts what they want ae not meey esuts but esuts that emege n a smpe compelng and aesthecaly peasng way and so on A concenaon on anguage aone o on texts can easy ead nto absud as s shown by Ausn and by the pacce of deconsucon on the one hand phosophes poduce texts ke poets on the othe hand they take t fo ganted that the texts eea a eal beyond the thoughts mpessons memoies es of speech etc etc fom whch they aose (Scenc easts to a cetan extent shae in pedcament Fnaly soe comments on what I thnk about ncommensuabil and how I aed at the dea 8 b 222 b 8
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I thnk that ncommensuabity tu up when we shaen ou concepts in the manne demanded by the loca posivsts and the osping and that it u thei ideas on explanaon, educon and pogess Incommensuability ds when we use concepts as sciensts use them, in an open, ambiguous and often counte inuive manne Incommensuabity is a pobem fo phosophes not fo sciensts, though the lae may become pcolocl consed by unusual thgs I aived at the phenomenon whe stdying the ay liteate on basic statements and by consideg the possibiity of pecepons adcaly dieent fom ou own In my thesis 10 I ened the meang of obseaonal statements I consideed the idea that such statements descibe what is ven and ied to iden this ven' Pomolocl this did not seem to be possible; we noce objects thei popees thei eaons not the gven It is of couse tue that we can gve quick epos on the popees of eveday objects but ths does not change them into nonobects bt only shows that we have a special elaon to them Phenomenologcay what is gven consists of the same thgs which can also est unobseed it is not a new kid of obect Special aangements such as the educon sceen inoduce new con dions they do not eveal ingedien in obects we aleady know Result the gven cannot be isolated by obseaon The second possibility was to isoate it by logca means what is gven can be ascetained wt c hence I obtain the gven contained in the table befoe me by emovig fom the statement thee is a table al the consequences that make te coecons possible This shows that the gven is the esut of an uneasonabe decision ntestable statements cannot see as a basis fo scence Following ths agument I inoduced the assumpon that the meaning of obseaon statemen depends on the nate of the objects descibed and as this nate depends on the most advanced theoies on the content of these theoies O as I fomuated it in my st English pape on the topc the inteetaon of an obseaon language is detemined by the theoies which we use to explain what e obsee and t changes as soon as these theoies change 1 1 In a od obseaon statements ae not ust theo/ (the vews of Toulmin Hansn and appaently also Kuhn) but ful tortl nd the disncon between obseon statements (potoco l 0 Vea 5 - e ae o yea of etensie isussio in the Ka Ce a suese by Pofesso Vto Kaf of the Ueity of Vienna. 'A Ae at a Realis Inteetaon of Eene' At S ete in hsh ap, Vol. I e aag in itais) o . 3 1
AGAIST METHD
statemets n the termology ofthe Vena Crcle) ad theorecal statemets s a pragmac dsco ot a semac dsco; there are o specal obseaoa meags Thus the sae year as Haso (Hasos Pts oDsc appeared 58) and four years before Kuh I formulated a thess a weaker form of whch became ve popuar ater o Moreover, my thess ot oly was songer tha the thess of theoadeness t also came from a derent source For whe Toulm and Hason were spred by Wttgenste's Plosl tgtos I started from and retued to deas that had been developed n the Venna Crce - and I sad so Qune, whose phosophy shows cose connecons to the phosophy of the Vena Crcle also used a crtero of obseabty that s rather smar to e Now when Fegl heard of these deas he ponted out that terpreng obseaons terms of the theores they are obseaos of makes nonsense of crucal eperments for how can an eperment decde between two theores when ts nterpretao aready depeds o these theores and when the theores theselves have o common eements such as a common obseaon language? I the paper just menoned and Epanaon, Reducon ad Emprcsm' publshed 62 I took up the challenge I rst creased t by consucng cases where mportant terms of one theo canot any way be dened another whch moreover es to do s ob My eample whch I foud n Aeese Maers D Voru Gl/s m . Ju was the reaon of the terms mpeus' ad mometum I aso developed a theo of test to aswer the challege I 162 I called theores such a those contag mpetus ad momentum' ncommensurabe theores sad that ony a speca class of theores socalled nonnstaa theores coud be (but eed ot be) commensurable and added that successve commesurabe theores are related to each other by replacemet ot by subsumpo The year 62 s aso that of Kuh's great book - but Kuh used a derent approach to apply the same term to a smar (not a dencal) suaon Hs approach was hstorca whe e was absact In 60 I started the sudes descrbed chapters 8 and 16. They revealed tht percepo and epermentao obey laws of ther
2 PhiloshiP, V pp. 9 25. 3 Dets n Drk Kppeberg, Di Ajbng Anh Philosh, rnkfurt, 98 4. Philoshil P, V , pp. f.
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own whch cannot be educed to theoreca assumpons and ae theeoe beyond the grasp o theoybound epstemooges I aso joned Kuhn n demandng a hstoca as opposed to an epstemoogca groundng o scence but I s de om hm by opposng the poca autonomy o scence Apa om that ou ews (e my pubshed ews and Kuhns as yet unpubshed ecent phosophy by now seem to be amost denca 5 except that I hae e sympathy o Kuhns aempt to e up hstoy wth phosophca o lngusc but at any te wth theoeca opes a connecon wth theoy just bngs us back to what I at east want to escape om - the gd though chmaeca (deconsucon! boundaes o a concepua system'
5. Cf. my Reasm and e s f Knwede' Jo of Vl. 989, pp 353 esp e 26 d e p t e pnt esy
17 Ntr scc or rtol r ul msur ocllc T r plr trdtos uwr otr storcl groudg
So far I hav id to sho that rason, at last in th form in hich it is dfndd by ogicians, phiosophrs and som scinsts, dos not t scinc and cod not hav contribtd to its groth This is a good argmnt against thos ho admir scinc and ar aso savs of rason Thy mst no mak a choic Thy can kp scinc; thy can kp rason thy cannot kp both. Bt scinc is not sacrosanct. Th mr fact that it sts is admird, has rsts is not scint for mag it a masr of xcnc Mod scinc aros from globa objcons against arlir vis and raonaism itsf, th ida that thr ar gnral rls and standards for condcng or aairs, aairs of knoldg incdd, aros from globa objcons to common sns (xampl: Xnophans against Homr). Ar to rfrain from ngaging in thos acvis that gav ris to scinc and raonalsm in t rst pac? Ar to rst contnt ith thir rsts? Ar to assm tat vg tt happnd aftr Nton (or ar Hilbrt) is prfcon? Or shal admit that mod scinc may hav basic fats and may b in nd of gobal chang? And having mad th admission, ho shal procd? Ho shall ocaliz falts and car ot changs? Dont nd a masr that is indpndnt of scinc and conicts ith it in ordr to prpar th chang ant to bring abot? And il not th rjcon of rls and standards tat conict ith scinc forvr prvnt s from nding sch a masr? On th othr hand hav not som of th cas stdis shon that a bnt applicaon of 'raona prdrs od not hav givn s a bttr scinc, or a bttr ord bt nothing at al? And ho ar to jdg th rsts thmslvs? Obviosly thr is no simp ay of giding a pracc by rs or of criciing standards of raonaity by a pracc Th probms I hav sktchd ar od ons and mch mor 214
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geneal than the poblem of the elaon between science and atonalty hey occu wheneve a ch, wellaculated and famla pacce a pacce of composng, of pang pctues, of stage oducon, of selecng people fo public oce, of keepng ode and punishng cmnals, a pacce of woshp, of oganzg socety s confonted by a pacce of a deent knd that can nteact wth t he nns and the eslts depend on hstocal condons and va fom one case to the next A powefl ibe invadg a cony may mpose ts laws and change the ndigenos adons by foce only to be changed tself by the emnants of the sbded clte A ule may decide, fo easons of convenence, to se a popla and stablzng elgon as the basc deology of hs empe and may theeby contbte to the tansfomaton both of hs empe and of the eligon chosen An ndvidal, epelled by the theate of hs me and n seach of somethng bette, may study foegn plays, ancent and mode theoes of dama and, sng the actos of a fendly company to pt hs deas nto pacce, change the theae of a whole naon A gop of pantes, desos of addg the eptaon of beng scensts to he aleady enomous eptaon as sklled casmen, may noduce scenc ngedents sch as geomet no panng and theeby ceate a new style and new poblems fo anes, sclpos, achects astonome, cical of the deence between classcal pincples of astonomy and the esng pacce and desos o soe astonomy to ts fome splendo, may nd a way to acheve hs am and so nate the emoval of the lasscal pncples themselves In all these cases we have a pacce, o a tadon, we have cean nlences upon it, emegng fom anothe pacce o adon and we obsee a change he change may lead to a slght modcaon of the ogna pacce, t may elmnate , may eslt n a tadon tha baely esembles ethe of the nteacng elemens Inteacons sch as those jus descbed ae accompaned by hangng degees ofw on pa ofthe paciants Copecs new vey well what he wanted and so dd Consanne the Gea I am now speakng abot the nal mplse, not abot the ansfomaon that followed he nuson of geomet nto panng s less easly accounted fo n tems of awaeness We have no dea why Gotto ted to acheve a compomse between the suface of the panng and the cooealty of the things panted, especally as pictes wee no yet egaded as stdes of a mateial ealty We can smse that Bunelleschi aved at his consucon by a natal extenson of the achitects method of epesenng heedmensonal objects and that hs contacts wth contempoa
1
AGAIS MEH
cient were not without coneuence. t i ll ore difcult to undertand the gradually riing cla of aran to ake contribuon to the ae knd of knowledge whoe princple were explained at unverie n very dierent ter. Here we have not a crical study of alteave adion a we have in opecu, or in ontanne, but an mprsso of the uelene of acadeic cence when copaed with the facinang coneuence ofthe ouey of olubu Magellan and their ucceor. There aroe then the dea of an Aerica of Knowledge', of an enrely new and a yet unfoeeen connent of knowledge that could be dcovered, ut a the eal Aerica had been dcovered: by a cobinaon of kll and abact tudy Mar have been fond of confounding nucent infoaon conceing the awarene that accopane uch pee wth irelevance and they have acribed only a econda ole to indvdual concioune. n th they wee right but not n the way they thought For new though often necea, wee not ucent fo explanng the cg that now cured and that depended alo on the (often unknown and unealzed) crmstc unde whch the dea wee appled Revoluon have anfoed not only the pacce thei iniato wanted to change but the ve pncple by ean of whch intenonally o unintenonaly, they cared out the change Now conidering any interacon of adon we ay ak two d of ueon whch hal call obsr qutos and pcpt qutos epecvely. Obsr qutos are conceed wth the detal of an nteacon Theywant to gve a htorical account ofthe interacon and, perhap, foulate law, o ule of thub, that apply to al nteacon Hegel' ad: poon negaon ynthe (negaon ofthe negaon) uch a ule Pcpt qutos deal with the attude the ebe of a pacce o a adon ae uppoed to take toward the (poibe) inuon of anothe The obee ak: what happen and what gong to happen? The parcipant ak: what hal do? Shal upport the inteacon? Shal oppoe t? Or hal py foget about t? n the cae of the opecan Revouon for exape, the obee ak: what ipact did opecu have on Witenbeg aonoer at about 560? How dd they eact to h work? Did they change oe of the belef and if o, why? Dd ther change of opnon have an eect on othe aonoe, o were they an oated group not taken eriouly by the ret of the profeon? The ueon of a parcipant ae: th i a ange book deed
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hould I take t serously? Should I study t detal or oly uercally or should I smly coue as before? The ma theses seem absurd at rt sght but maybe there s somethg them? How hall I d out? Ad so o It s clear that obseer quesos must take the quesos of the acats to aout ad aats wll aso lste most carefuy (f they are ed that way that s) to what obseers have to say o the matter but the teo s deret both ases Obseers wat to kow what s gog o arats what to do A obseer desrbes a lfe he does ot ead (exet adetay) a aat wats to aage hs ow fe ad asks hmsef what attude to take towards the thgs that may uee t Parca a be ousts ad at a straghtfoard ad raa way I the ate 1th etuy may es beame Protestats beause ths furthered the terests ad some of ther subjets beame Protestats order to be eft eae e Brsh oloal oas relaed the laws ad habts of foreg bes ad cutures by ther ow vlzed laws the latter were oe aeted beause they were the laws of the kg, or beause oe had o way to oose them, ad ot beause of ay s exelee The soure of ther ower ad 'vadty was ceary uderstd, both by the oals ad by the more astute of ther ufouate subjets I the sees ad eseally ure mathemas oe ofte ursues a arular e of researh ot beause t s regarded as say erfet but beause oe wats to see where t leads I sha al the hosohy uderlyg suh a attude of a aat a prtc plosy A ragmac hlosohy a oursh oly f the ados to be udged ad the develomets to be ueed are see as temora makeshfts ad ot as asg costuets of thoughts ad ao A aat wth a ragma hlosohy vews races ad trados muh as a aveer vews foreg oues Eah cou has features he lkes ad thg he abhors I decdg to sette dow a aveler w have to comare lmate ladsae laguage, temeramet of the habtats ossbles of hage rvay looks of male ad femae ouao theae ootues for advaemet qualty of ves ad so o He aso remember that hs al demads ad exetaos may ot be vey sesble ad so ermt the ress of hoce to aet ad hage hs ature a we whh, after a s just aother (ad or) rae or ado eterg the ress So a ragmast must be both a arat ad a obseer eve those exeme ases where he decdes to lve acordae wth hs mometary whms eey
18
AGA ST METHO
Few ndviduas and groups ae pagmasts n the sense just descbed and one can see why: t is ve dcut to see ones own most cheshed deas n pespecve, as pas of a changng and, pehaps, absurd adon Moeove hs inabiity not ony ss t is aso urgd as an attde proper to those engaged n the sudy and the iprovemnt of man, society, knowedge Hady any elion has eve presented itself just as something woth tyng The cai s much songer the relgon is the tuth, eveythng else is eo and those who know it, undestand it but sll eject t ae rotten to the coe (o hopeless idots). Two eements ae contained in such a clai Frst, one disnguishes beeen adions, pracces and other results of indvidual and/or colecve human acvity on the one side and a dierent domain that may act on the adions without being one Secondly, one explans the sucure of ths specal doman in detal Thus the word of God is powerful and must be obeyed not because the adon that caes it has much force, but because t is outsde all adons and povides a way of improving them The ord of God can stat a adion, its meanng can be handed on from one geneaon to the next, but it is itself outsde al adons The st element - the belief that some demands are objecve' and adonindependent - plays an ipotant ole n rolsm whch is a seculaized form of the belef in the powe of the wod of God And ths is how the opposion reasonpacce obains is polemica sg For the o agences are not seen as o pacces whch, while pehaps of unequal value, are yet both ipeec and changng human producs but as one such product on the one side and lasng measues of exceence on the othe Ealy Geek aonalsm aleady contains ths vesion of the conlct e us exane what cicumstances, assumpons, pedues what feates of the hstoical pocess - are esponsbe fo it To stat with the adons that oppose each othe - Homeic comon sense and the vaious forms of raonalsm tha aise in the 6th to 4th cenuies - have dr l sur On the one hand we have compex deas that canno be easy explained, they wok but one does not know how, they are adequate', but one does not know why, they apply n specia crcumstances only, ae ich in conen bu poo in simlaes and, therefoe, in deducve connecons On the othe side thee are relavey clear and sipe conceps which, havng jus been inoduced, revea a good dea of F etas see Chapte 6
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ther suture and whh an be lned many ways They are poor n ontent but h n deduve onneons The derene beomes espealy skng n the ase of mathemas In geome for exampe we stat wth rules of thumb applyng to physal obje and ther shapes under a great vaety of rumstanes Later on t an be pd why a gven rule apples to a gven ase but the poofs make use of new enes that ae nowhee found nature In anquty the elaon between the new enes and the famlar world of ommon sense gave se to vaous theoes One of them whh one mght all Pltosm assumes that the new enes are ea whle the enes of ommon sense ae but ther mperfet opes Anothe theo due to the Ssts egads natural obje as ea and the objets of mathemas (the objets of reason) as smplemnded and uneals mages of them These two theoes wee also apped to the deene between the new and fary absat dea of nowledge popagated by Pato (but found already before) and the ommonsense nowedge of the me (Plato wsey uses a dstoted mage of the latter to gve substane to the foe) Agan t was ethe sad that there ested ony one ue nowledge and that human opnon was but a pale shadow oft or human opnon was regarded as the only substanal nowledge n estene and the absat nowledge of the phosophes as a useless deam (I an see horses Plato sad Ansthenes but I nowhee see you deal horse) It would be teesng to folow ths anent onlt though hsto down to the present One would then ea that the onlt tus up many paes and has many shapes Two examples must sue to usate the great vaety of ts manfestaons When Gottshed wanted to efom the Gean theae he looed fo plays worth mtang That s he looed for adons moe ordely moe dgned moe espetabe than what he found on the stage of hs me He was atated by the Frenh theae and here many by Coele Beg onvned that suh a ompex ede of poey (as agedy) oud hady est wthout rules he led for the ules and found Arstotle For hm the rues of Arstotle wee not paua way of vewng the theae they were the eason for exelene whee exellene was found and gudes to mpovement where mprovement seemed neessa Gd theae was an embodment of the ules of Astote Lessng gradually pepared a deent vew Fst he restoed what he thought to be the eal Vd zum "Stbndn Cat qutd fm. Ch. Gttschd Sh zur iur Stuttga 9, p 2
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Aritot a oppod to th Aritot of Coill and Gochd Nxt h prmid ioaon ofth lttr of Aritot' ru proidd uch iolaon did not lo ight of thir aim. And, naly h uggtd a dirnt paradigm and mphaizd that a mnd nvnv nough to conuct it nd not b rtrctd by ru. If uch a mind uccd in hi ort thn lt u forgt th txtbk!' In a diffrnt (and much intrng) doman w hav th oppoion btwn tho who uggt that anguag b conuctd and rcontructd in accordanc wth mp and car ru and who favouraby compar uch / lg with th loppy and opaqu natural dom and othr phloophr who art tha natura anguag, bing adaptd to a wid varity of crcumtanc, coud nvr b adquatly rpacd by thr anamc logica comptor. Thi tndncy to w dirnc in th uctur of adon (complx and opaqu v impl and clar) a drnc in knd (ra v imprfct ralizaon of t) i rnforcd by th fact that th cric of a pracc tak an obr' poon wth rpct to t but rman parcpant of th pracc that prod thm with thr obcon Spakng th languag and ung th tandard of th pracc thy dcovr' limitaon, fault, rror whn a hat raly happn hat th two pracc th on hat bng cricizd and h on hat do h criczng- don't t ach ohr Many mts gst an outandout mtlm ar of th knd. Thy noc that matriaim chang th u of mntal' trm hy iutrat th conqunc of th chang wih amung aburdi (thought hang wght and h lik) and hn thy top. Th aburdi how hat marialm clah with our uual way of pakng about mnd, hy do no how wha i bttr - matriaim or h way But takng h parcpant' point of w wih rpct o common n tu th aburd nto argumnt agant matrialm It a if Amrican wr o obct to forign currnc bcau thy canno b brought nto impl raon (1 1 or 1 1 0 or 1 100) to h dolar Th tndncy to adop a parcpant' w wh rpct to h poion that do th udging and o o crat an Archmdan point for cricim i rnforcd by crtain dncon that ar h prid and oy of armchar phloophr. I rfr to h dncon btwn an valuaon and th fact hat an vauaon ha bn mad, a 3 ambu Dramau Sck 8 Cf. wever Lessng's crcsm f e cams f te rgna genuses f s tme n Sck 6. Lessng's accunt f te rean between reasn' an pracce s qute cmpe an n agreement wt te ve evepe fuer bew
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prpsal and the fact that the prpsal has been accepted and the eated disncn between subecve wishes and bjecve standards f ecelence When speaking as bseers we ften say that cetain gups accept cetain standads think highly f these standards Speaking as parcipants we equally en use the standards withut any reference t thei gn t the wishes f thse usig them We say theies ught t be falsiable and cnadicn free and nt I want theies t be falsiable and cnadicn fee r sciensts becme very unhappy unless their theies ae falsiabe and cnadicn free Nw it is quite crrect that statements f the rst kind (prpsas, rules, standards) (a) cntai n reference t the wishes f indivdua human beings r t the habits f a be and (b) cannt be deved fm r cnadicted by, statements cnceg such wshes r habits, any ther facts But that des nt mae them bjecve and independent f adins T infer frm the absence f terms cnceng subjects r grups in there ught t be that the demand made is bjecve wud be just as errneus as t clam bjecvty ie independence frm persnal r grup idisyncrasies f pca iusins and mass hallucinans n the gunds that the subject, the grup, nwhere ccurs in them Thee are many statements that are ulted bjecvely, ie wthut eference t adins pracces, but are s met to be utood in rean t a pracce Examples are dates, c-rdnates, statements cnceing the vaue f a currency statements f lgc (afte the discvery f ateve lgcs) statements f geme (afte the discvery f NnEuclidean gemees) and s n The fact that the etrt t yu ught t d X can be thats what you thn! shws that the same is ue f vaue statements And thse cases where the eply is nt alwed can be easiy reced by usng discveies in vaue thery that crrespnd t the discvery f alteave gemees, r alteave gca systems: we cnfrnt bjecve value judgement frm dierent cutures r dieent pacces and as the bjecvst hw he is gng t reslve the cnlct4 Reducn t shared pnciples is nt aways pssibe and s we must admt that the demands r the frmuae expressng them In he pay e Rug Cs (ate tued nt a smewhat vapd m wh Peter Te tw madmen camng t be Gd ae cnfrnted wh each her Ths maus dea s cnfuses he paywrght hat he uses re and bmstne nstead f dague get vr h prbem Hs na sun, hweve, s qute nteresng he ne madman tus nt a gd, upght na Bsh Cen wh pays Jack he Rpper n he sde d he paywrght mean t say hat ur mde becvs' wh have been hrugh he re f eatvsm can e t na ny f hey ae eted annhate a dsrbng eements?
A G A I S T M E T H
ae ncomplete as used and have to be evised Connued nsstence on the 'objecvity of vaue judgements howeve woud be as iteate as connued insistence on the 'absoute use of the pai 'udown afte discovey of the spheical shape of the earth And an agument such as 'it is one thng to utte a demand and quite a dieent thng to asset that a demand has been made theefoe a mupcity of cutues does not mean eavism has much n common wth the agument that anpodes cannot est because they woud fa down. Both cases est on antediluvian concepts (and nadequate disnc ons). Smal wonde ou 'aonalists ae fascinated by them. Wth ths we have aso ou answe to (b). It is ue that stang a demand and descibng a pacce may be two deent thi and that oca connecons cannot be estabished between them. This does not mean that the nteacon between demands and pacces cannot be eated and evauated as an inteacon of pacces. Fo the deence s due, st, to a dieence between obseeattude and parcipantattude one side, the side defending the 'objecvity of its vaues, ts adon instead of mg it which does no tu the adon nto an obecve measue ofvaidity And secondy, the deence s due to concepts that have been adapted to such one sdedness The coona oca who poclaims new laws and a new ode in the name of the kng has a much bette gasp of the situaon than the aonaist who ecites the mee lette of the aw wthout any efeence to the cicumstances of its appicaon and who egads this fata ncompeteness as poof of the obecvity of the aws ecited. Afte ths pepaaon et us now ook at what has been caed 'the elaon between eason and pacce Smping mattes somewhat we can say that thee est thee vews on the matte. A. Reason guides pacce. Its authoity is independent of the authoity of pacces and adions and it shapes the pacce n accodance wth ts demands This we may ca the lsc vo of the eaon B. Reason eceves both its content and ts authoity fom pacce It descibes the way n which pacce woks and fomulates ts undeyig pincpes. Ths veson has been caed urlm and it has occasonaly been atbuted to Heg (though eoneousy so). Both ideasm and natualism have dcues. The dcues ofideaism ae tha the deast does not ony want to 'act raonally he aso wants his aonal acons to have esuts. And he wants these esults to occu not ony among the deazaons he uses but in the ea wod he inhabits. Fo example, he wants ea
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man being to build u and mantan te ocety of i dream, e want to ndertand te motion and te natre ofreal tar and real tone. Tog e may advie to t aide all obeaon o) te eaven' and to concentrate on dea only e eventaly ret to natre in order to ee to wat extent e a graed t law It ten often t ot and t often a ted ot tat acng raonally n te ene referred by im doe not rodce te exected reult. Ti conict between raonaity and exectation wa one of te main reaon for te contant reform of te canon of raonality and muc encoraged natralim Bt natralim not afactory eiter. Having coen a olar and ccefl racce te natralit a te advantage ofbeing on te rgt ide, at leat for te time being But a racce may deteriorate or it may be olar for te wrong reaon Muc of te olarity of mode cienc medcine i de to te fact tat c eole ave nowere ele to go and tat televiion, rmour, te tecnical circ of well eqied oital convince tem tat tey cold not oby do better) Baing tandard on a racce and leaving it at tat may forever eetate te ortcomng of t racce Te difcltie of natralim and dealim ave certan element in common. Te nadeqacy of tandard often become clear from te barrenne of te racce tey engender, te ortcoming of racce often are very obvio wen racce baed on dierent tandard ori Ti gget tat reaon and racce are not two different ind of ene bt ps o sgl dlcl procs Te ggeon can be illutrated by te relaon between a ma and te adventre of a eron ng t or by te relaon between an aran and i nment Originally ma were concted a image of and gide to reality and o remably, wa reaon But ma lie reaon contain idealization Hecataeu of Met for examle, imoed te general otline of Anamander' comolo on i account of te occed world and rereented connent by geometrica gure) Te wanderer ue te ma to nd way bt e alo correct it a e roceed, removing old ideaizaon and introdcing new one. Uing te ma no matter wat will oon get m into troble Bt it i better to ave ma tan to roceed witot tem n te ame way, te examle ay reaon witot te gidance of a racce wll lead atray wle a racce vatly imoved by te addion of eaon Plato, Rubic 3bf 6 Epinmis.
224
AGAS MTHD
This ount, though beer thn nturlism nd idelsm nd muh more relisti, is still not enrely ssfto It reples one sided on (of reson upon pre or pre upon reson) by n interon but it retns (ertin spets o the old iews of the interng genies reson nd pre re sll regrded s enes of derent kinds They re both needed but reson n est wthout pre nd pre n est without reson hll we ept ths ount of the mer? To nswer the queson we need only remember tht the derene between reson nd somethng unresonble tht must be formed by it or n be used to put it in its ple rose from tuing suturl derenes of pres nto dierenes ofkind Een the most perfet stndrds or rules re not ndependent of the te on whih they t (how else ould they nd pont ofttk i t?) d we woud hrdly understnd them or kow how to use them were they not welintegrted prts of rther ompex nd n pces qute opque pre or don, iz the lnguge in whh the sor rto eresses hs ste ommnds 7 On the other hnd een the most disorderly pre s not without its regules, s emerges from our ttude towrds nonpripnts 8 t s d rso ' d r r trr two drt p opr the derene being tht the one erly exhibits some smpe nd esly producibe forml spets, thus mking us forget the ompex nd hrdy understood properes tht gurntee the simpliity nd producibilty, whe the other drowns the forml spets under gret riety of identl properes But omplex nd implit reson s s reson nd pre with simpe forml fetures hoering boe pese but unnoed bkground of linguis hbits s sl prce Disregrdng (or rther, not een notiing) the sensegiing nd pplongurnteeing mehnsm in the rst se nd the impit regulries in the seond ronlst pereies lw nd order here nd mteril yet in need of beng shped there he hbt, so ommented upon in n erlier prt of ths seon, to tke pripnts pont of iew with respet to the former nd n Ths n has been made wth great frce and wth the hep f man eampes b Wttgensten cf m essay Wttgensten's Philoshil tigations', Phil R, 955 at hae ranasts reped Russe cdy I dn't undetand' Sr Kar Ppper breathessy: He s ght, he s ght- I dn't undetand t ether' In a wrd the nt s eeant because eadng ratnas dn't undetand t I, n the the hand wud sta dubng the ntegence and pehaps as the nteectu hnes f ranasts wh dn't undetand pretend nt t undetand such a smpe pnt 8 Cf my sh cmmen n ce casscans' n Chapter 6
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observers atude towards te aer furter searates wat s so nmatey onneted n reaty And so we ave nay wo agenes, ste and ordery reason on te one sde, a maeabe but not enrey yedng matera on te oter, and wt ts a te robems of raonaty tat ave rovded osoers wt nteeua (and, et us not forget, aso wt nana) noursment ever sne te Rse of Ratonasm n te West One annot e nong tat te arguments tat are s used to suor ts magnent resut are ndsngusabe from tose of te teoogian wo nfers a reator werever e sees some knd of order: obvousy order s not nerent n maer and so must ave been mosed from te outsde Te nteraon vew must terefore be suemented wit a sasfatory aount of te nterang agenes Presented n ts way t beomes a valty For tere s no tradon no maer ow ard eaded ts soars and ow ardmbed ts warriors tat wi reman unaeted by wat ours around t At any rate wat anges, and ow, s now a maer eter for storl rsr or for poltl o arried out by tose wo arate in te nterang tradons I sa now state te maons of tese resuts n a seres of teses wt orresondng exanaons We ave seen tat raona standards and te arguments suorng tem are vsbe arts of sea tradons onssng of lear and ext rinles and an unnoed and argey unknown but asoutely neessary bakground of dsosons for aon and juement Te standards beome objeve measures of exel ene wen adoted by arants ofadons oftis knd We ave ten objeve raona standards and arguments for ter validty We ave furter seen tat tere are oter tradions tat aso lead to judgements toug not on te bass of exlit standards and rines Tese vaue judgements ave a more mmedate arater, but tey are s evauatons, just ke tose of te raonast In bot ases judgements are made by ndvduas wo arate n tradons and use tem to searate Good from Ev We an terefore state: rdtos r tr good or bd t sp r Objevey seakng e ndeendenty of araon n a adon, tere s not mu o oose beween umantaransm and an-Semsm Coroary raonaty s not an arber of adons, t is isef a tradon or an aset of a tradon I s terefore neter good nor bad, it simply is.
6
AGAIST METHD
ii. A trdto ssums srbl or urbl prs o w omprd wt som trdto i.e. only when viewed by prcpnts who see he world in terms of ts vlues The proecons of hese prcipnts ppr obj nd sttements descrbing hem soud obj becuse he prcipnts nd he rdon hey proect re nowhere menoned in hem. They rsubj becuse hey depend on he dion chosen nd on he use he prcpnts me of it. The subjecvity s noced s soon s prcipnts rele ht dfferent dions gve rse o dieren judgemens. They wll hen hve to revise he conen of heir vlue sttements just s physicists revised he content of even he smplest stement conceng engt when it ws discovered h lengt depends on reference systems nd just s everybody revised he content of down when it ws dscovered ht he erth is sphercl. Those who dont crry out he revsion cnnot prde hemselves on formng specil school of especilly sute philosophers who hve overcome morl revism just s hose who sl cling to bsolute lengths cnnot pride hemselves on formng specil school of especily stute physicists who hve overcome relvity. They re just pgheded, or bdy informed, or boh. iii. d mp rltsm ofprs t kd tt sms to b d Ptgors Protgoren relvism s rsobl becuse it pys ttenon to he plurism of trdions nd vlues. And it is lzd for i does no ssume ht ones own vilge nd he strnge customs i contins re he nvel of he world. 9 iv. Ev trdto s spl wys of gg low Some trdons reec bout hese wys nd chnge hem from one group to he nex. Ohers te it for grned ht there is only one wy of mng people ccep heir views Depending on he dion dopted ths wy will loo cceptble, lughble, ronl, fooish, or wl be pushed side s mere propgnd. Argument s propgnd for one obseer, he essence of humn discourse for nother. v. We hve seen ht idividuls or groups prticipng in the intercon of trdions my dopt prgmtc phiosophy when judgng the events nd sructures ht rise. The princples of heir phlosophy often emerge only during he inercon (peope chnge while obseing chnge or prcipng in it nd the dions they use my chnge with hem) This mens thtjudgg stolpros o my us s yt uspd d uspbl pr One my bse 9 Prtagras s scsse n etal n Chapter secns 3 fFae to Reon.
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judgement and acon on tandard that cannot be peced in advance but are inoduced by the ve judgement (acon) they are uppoed to gude and one may even act without any tandard mply ollowing ome natural inclinaon The erce warror who cre hi wounded enemy ntead o kling hm ha no dea why he act a he doe and gve an enrely erroneou account oh reaon Bt h acon noduce an age o collaboraon and peaceu compeon intead o permanent hoity and o create a new adion ocommerce between naon The queon - how will you decide what path to chooe? How will you know what peae you and what you want to reject? ha thereore at eat two anwer, (1) there i no decion but a natural deveopment leading to adon which in reopect give reaon or the acon had it been a decon in accordance with tandard or (2) to ak how one wll judge and chooe in a yet nknown urrounding make a much ene a to ak what meauring nument one will ue in a yet unelored domain Standard whch are ntellectua meauring intment oten have to be td to make ene o new htorical tuaon jut a meauring inument have contantly to be invented to make ene o new phyca tuaon
. There are thereore at leat two dt wys o col cdg ssu which I hall call a d cg and an cg repecvely
In the rt cae ome or all parcpant adopt a welpecied adion and accept only thoe repone that correpond to it tandard I one party ha not yet become a parcipant o the choen tradion he w be badgered, peruaded educated un he doe and then the exchange begin Educaon i eparated rom decive debate t occur at an eary tage and guarantee that the grownup will behave properly A rtol bt i a pecial cae o a guded exchange I the parcpant are raonalit then al wel and the debate can tart right away I only ome parcipant are raonat and i they have power (an important conideraon) then they wil not take ther collaborator eriouly unl they have ao become raonalit: a ocety baed on raonaity not enrey ree one ha to pla the game o the intellectual 0 open exchange on the other hand i guded b a pragmac phloophy The adon adopted by the pare i unpecied in the . I s perhaps hardy necessa say, says Jhn Sa M, tha ths dne pras f deas and nstns ean appy ny human bengs n the �ary f her facues' - .e. t few nteecas and her pups n bey', The Phs ofJohn St M, ed M Chen, ew Yk 96 p 9
8
AGAIST METHD
bginning and dvlops as th xchang procds h parcipants gt immrsd into ach othrs was of thnking, fling, prciving to such an xtnt that thir idas, prcpons, wordviws ma b nrl changd th bcom dirnt pop parcipang n a nw and dirnt tradion An opn xchang rspcts th parr whthr h is an individua or an nr cultur, whl a raonal xchang promiss rspct onl within th framwork of a raonal dbat An opn xchang has no organon though it ma invnt on, thr is no ogic though nw forms oflogc ma mrg in its cours An opn xchang stablishs conncons btwn dirnt adions and anscnds th ravism of ponts ii and iv Howvr it anscnds it in a wa that cannot b mad obcv but dpnds n an unforsab mannr on th (histoca, pschoogical mata) condions n which it occurs (Cf aso th last paragaph of Chaptr 16)
A fr soc s soc n wc l trdtons r gn qul gts qul s to ducton nd otr postons ofpowr his is an obvious consunc of i ii and iii If adions hav advantags on from th point of viw of othr tradions thn chsing on adion as a basis of a fr socit is an arbia act that can b usd on b rsorng to powr A fr socit thus cannot b basd on an parcular crd; for xampl, it cannot b basd on raonalism or on humantarian considraons h basic suctur of a fr socit is a pt stur not an idolo, it funcons lik an iron raing not lik a convicon But how is this suctur to b concivd? Is it not ncssa to bt th mattr or shoud th suctur b smpl mposd? And if it is ncssa to dbat th mattr thn should ths dbat not b kpt fr from subcv nuncs and basd on obcv considraons onl? This is how intlctuals to convinc thir flow cins that th mon paid to thm is w spnt and that thir idoo should connu to assum th cna posion it now has I hav arad xposd th rorscum dcpons bhind th phras of th obcvit of a raonal dbat th standards of such a dbat r not obcv' th on r to b obcv' bcaus rfrnc to th goup that prots from thir us has bn omttd Th ar lik th invitaons of a clvr tant who instad of saing I want ou to do or I and m wif want ou to do sas What all of us want is ' or what th gods want of us is or, vn bttr, it is raonal to do ' and so sms to av out his own prson nrl It is somwhat dprssing to s how man intlignt pop hav faln for such a shalow ck W rmov it b obsrvng
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ll that so wl not b mposd but wl on w
pl gng n n cng (cf vi above ntroduc protct stctur o t knd ud to Cze aves o a small scale,
colaborato betwee aos o a large scale ae the developmets I have mid The ted States are ot a free socety the sese described hee
bt stlng t stur or soc r bt not
d bt. This does ot mea that the cocete developmets described uder the ast thesis r us ope debates t meas that they could us them ad that raoalism is ot a ecessa gredet
ofthe basic sucture of a free siety The results for sciece are obvous Here we have a parcuar ado objecvely o par with all other adios (theses ad v). Its resuts wil appear magnicet to some ados execrable to others barely worth a yaw to sl further adios f course our well-codioed materialisc cotemporaries ae liable to burst with exctemet over eves such as the mooshots the double helx oequibum theodamics But et us look at the mater from a deret pot of vew ad it becomes a ridiculous exercse futy It eeded blios of dolars thousands of wel-aied assistats years of hard work to eabe some iarculae ad rather mted cotemporaries1 to perform a few graceless hops i a pace obody i his righ mnd woud th ofvisg a dried out airess hot stoe But myscs, usig oy the mnds aveled acoss the ceesa spheres to God hmsef, whom they viewed al his pedou, receg egth fo coug ther lives ad eightemet fo themseves ad ther felow me It s oy the iteracy of the geera public ad of ther se aers the teectua ad their amazig ac of magao that makes them eject such compasos wthout further ado A fee society does ot obect to such a attude but t wll ot pemt t to become a basic deoo either x A r soc nssts on t srton osc nd soc More about ths topic i Chapte 19
I I . Cf n Me, f r theM Lndn 90
18 Yt t possbl to lut str ortol d to pr t. prpl o prt r t b trdto or bod cg d t s possbl to l t w
I shall now ilusate some of these esults by showing how standads ae and have been cicized in physics and asonomy and how this pocedue can be extended to othe elds Chapte 1 7 stated with the genea poblem of the elaon between eason and pacce In the ilusaon eason becomes scenc aonalty, pacce the pacce of scienc eseach, and the poblem is the elaon between scenc aonaty and eseach I shall discuss the answes given by idealism, natualism and by a thd posion, not yet menoned, which I shall call nave anachism Accoding to ls it s aonal (pope, in accodance wth the will of the gods o whateve othe encouang wods ae being used to befudde the naves) to do cetain things- com wt m. It s aonal (pope, etc) to kl the enemies of the faith, to avod d oc hypotheses, to despise the deses of the body, to emove inconsstences, to suppot pogessive eseach pogammes and so on Raonalty usce, the Divine aw) ae univesal, independent of mood, context, hstoical ccumstances and gve ise to equay univesal ules and standads Thee is a veson of dealism that seems to be somewhat moe sophscated but actualy s not Raonality (the law, etc) is no longe said to be univesal, but thee ae univesaly vald condiona statements asseng what is aonal in what context and thee ae coesponding condonal ules Some evewes have cassied me as an dealist n the sense just descibed with the poviso that I ty to eplace famiia ues and standads by moe evouonay' ules such as poifeaon and counteinducon and almost eveyone has ascibed to me a methodology' with anythng goes as its one basic pincple' But in
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Chpte 2 I sy qute expcity tht my intenon is not to eplce one set of generl ules by nother such set my intenon s, rthe to convince the reder tht, mtologs t mot oous os tr lmt or to express it in tems just explined my intenon is to show tht idelism, whethe of the simpe o of the context dependent kind is the wrong soluon fo the poblems of scienc onity These problems re not solved by chnge of stndrds but by tking dieent view of stndrds ltogether Idelism cn be dogmc nd it cn be cc In the rst cse the ules proposed e regrded s nl nd unchngeble; in the second cse there is the possibility of discussion nd chnge But the discussion does not tke prcces nto ccount t emns rescted to n bsct domin of stndrds, ules nd logic The lmton of l ules nd stndds is recognzed by rsm nve nchst sys () tht both bsoute ules nd contextdependent ules hve their lmits nd nfes (b) tht l ules nd stndrds e wothless nd should be given up Most evewes regd me s nve nchst n ths sense, oveooking the mny pssges whee I show how cetin procedues d scensts n the reserch Fo in my studes of Geo, of Bownn oon, of the Presrcs I not only demonste the lurs of fmr stndds, I lso to show wht not so fmilir predures did ctully ud. Thus while I gee with () I do not gree wth (b) gue tht ll ules hve thei limts nd tht there is no compehensve onlty, I do not gue tht we should preed wthout ules nd stndds. so rgue for context ul ccount but gn the contextul ues re not to rl the bsolute ules, they e to sult them Moeove, I suggest ew rlto between ues nd pcces. t s this elon nd not ny prculr ulecontent tht chcteizes the posion I wish to defend This poson dopts some elements of turlm but it rejects the turlist philosophy ccordng to ntulism ules nd stndrds re obtned by n nysis oftrdions s we hve seen the poblem is which tdon to choose Phlosophes of science will of couse opt for science s their bsc dion But science is not o don, it is my nd so it gives se to mny nd ptly ncompble stdrds (I hve expied this dculty n my discussion of Lktos). 1 Besides the procedue mkes it mpossble for the phlosopher to give esons fo hs choice of science over myth Philhil P, V. 2, Chapte 0 C Chaper 1
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AAINS MET
or Aristotle auraism cannot sove the problem of scientic raonaliy. As in Chapter 7 we can now compare the drawbacks of nauralism and idealism and arrive at a more sasfactory view auralism says that reason is completely td by research. Of this we retain the idea that research can change reason. dealism says that reason completely gs research. Of this we retain the dea that reason can change research Combining the two elements we arrive at the idea of gu wo s p of t gud d s gd t. This corresponds to the interaconist vew of reason and pracce formulated in Chapter 7 and llusated by the exampe of the map ow the interaconist view assumes two dierent enes, a disembodied guide on the one side and a wellendowed pracce on the other But the guide seems dis embodied only because its body, ie the very substanal pracce that underlies it, is not noced and the pracce seems cude and n need of a guide only because one is not aware of the complex and rather sophiscated laws it contains Thus the probem is not the interacon of a pracce with something dierent and extea, but t lmt ofo trdto ur t mp of ot A look at the way in which science treats its problems and revises its standards conrms this picure n physics theories are used both as descripons of facts and as standards of speculaon and facual accuracy Msug stmts are consucted in accordance wth laws and their readings are tested under the assumpon that these laws are correct. n a simlar way theories giving rise to physical principles provide standards to udge other to by: theories that are reativiscally invariant are better than theories that are not Such standards are of couse not untouchable The standard of relavisc invariance, for example, may be removed when one discovers that the theory of relav has serious shorcomings Shorcomings are occasionally found by a direct examinaon of he theory, for example by an examnaon ofits mahemacs, or its predicve success. They may also be found by the development of ateatives (cf Chapter ) i.e. by research hat vioates the standards to be examned The idea that naure s innitely rich both ualitavely and uantavely leads to he desire to make new discoveres and thus to a principe of content increase which gives us another standard to udge heories by theories that have excess content over what is already own are preferable to theories that have not Again the standard is no untouchable. t is in rouble he moment we discover hat we inhabit a nite world. The dscovery is prepared by he
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development of Aristotelian theories which refrain from going beond a given set of properes - it is again prepared b research that violates the standard. The procedure used in both cases contans a variet of elements and so there are dierent was of describing t, or reacng to t. One element and to m mind the most mpotant one s mologcl The standard ·we use and the rules we recommend make sense onl in a world that has a cetain sucture The become inapplcable, or stat runnng idle in a domain that does not exhibit ths sucture When peope heard of the new discoveries of Columbus, Magelan, Diaz the reaized that there were connents, cimates, races not enumerated n the ancient accounts and the conjectued there might be new connents ofknowledge as wel, that there mght be an America of Knowedge just as there was a new geographical ent caled America, and the ed to discover it b venturing beond the lmits of the eceived ideas. The demand fo content incease now became ve pausible. It aose from the wsh to dscover moe and moe of a natue that seemed to be innitel rich in extent and qualt The demand has no point in a nte wold that is composed of a nite numbe of basic qualies. How do we nd the cosmoog that supports o suspends ou standads The ep introduces the second elemen that entes the revision of standads iz thozg in a genea sense, including mh and metaphsica specuaon. The dea of a nte word becomes acceptable when we have theories describng such a wold and when these theories tu out to be better than thei innist rivals. The wod is not directl given to us, we have to catch through the medium of tradons whch means that even the cosmologica agument refers to a cetan stage of compeon between worldvews, theories of raonat incuded Now when sciensts become accustomed to treang theories n a certain wa when the foget the easons fo this eaent but simpl regad it as the essence of science or as an important pat of what it means to be scenc, when phiosophers aid them in the forgetfulness b sstemazing the famiia procedues and showng how he ow fom an absact theo of aonalit then the theories needed to show he shotcongs of the undering standards wil not be introduced or, f the are intoduced wl no be taken serious. The will not be taken seriousl because the clash wth customa habts and sstemazaons heeof Fo exampe a good wa of examning the idea that the wold s nite both qualitae and quantavel is to deveop an Aristotelan cosmolog. Such a cosmoog povdes means of
34
AGAINST METHD
descripon adapted to a nite world wie the corresponding methodoogy replaces te demand for content increase by the demand for adequate descripons of this kind Assume we introduce teories that correspond to the cosmoogy and develop them in accordance with the new rules Wat will appen? Sciensts wil be unappy for te teories ave unfamiliar properes Pilosopers of science will be unhappy because they inoduce standards unheard of in thei profession Being fond of surrounding their unappiness with arias caled easons' they will go a little furte They will say that they ae not merely unhappy, but ave arguments' fo teir unhappiness The aguments in most cases are elaborate epeons and variaons of te standards tey gew up with and so tei cognive content is tat of But te theo is ad oc' or But the teories are developed without content incease!' And all one heas when asking the furter queston wy that is so bad is eithe that science as proceeded dieently for at least 200 years or that content increase solves some poblems of conrmaon theo Yet te queson was not wat science does but ow it can be impoved and whether adopng some conrmaon theories is a good way of eaing about the wold No answer is fortcoming And so inteesng possibilies ae removed by rmly insisng on the status quo t s amusng to see that suc insistence becomes the more determined the more crica' the pilosophy that is faced with the pobem We, on te othe hand, retain te lesson that t vd usuls qu opulr str c b cckd o rrc tt volt tm A furter example, to illustrate the point The dea that informaon conceing te exteal wod avels undstubed via the senses into te mind leads to the standad that al owledge must be checked by obseaon teories that agee with obseaon ae pefeable to theories that do not Tis simple standad is in need of eplacement the moment we discove that senso informaon is distorted in many ways We make the discove when deveoping theories that conict with obseaon and nding that they excel in many oter respects (Capters 5 to describe ow Galieo contributed to the discove) Finally, te idea that things are wel dened and that we do not live in a paradocal word leads to the standad that our owledge must be sefconsistent Teories that contain contradictons cannot be part of scence Tis apparently quite fundamenta standad wic many pilosophers accept as unesitatingly as Catolics once accepted te dogma of the mmacuate concepon of te Virgin loses its autority the moment we nd tat tere are facts wose ony
EIGHTEE
5
adquat dcrpon i inconitnt and that ncontnt thor ay b ruiu and ay to hand whi th attpt to ak th conor to th dand oconitncy crat u and unwdy ontr2 Th at xap ra urthr quon whch ar uuay oruatd a obcon againt t (and againt th crci o othr tandard a w tandard o contnt incra incudd) On obcon that nonconadcon a ncary condion of rarch A procdur not n agrnt wth th tandard not rarch it chao t thror not poib to xai non conadicon n th annr dcrbd in th at xap Th an part o th obcon i th cond tatnt and t i uuay upportd by th rark that a conadcon pi vry tatnt Thi it do but oy in rathr ip ogica yt Now it car that changing tandard or baic thor ha rprcuon that ut b takn car o Adtng voci argr than th vocity o ght nto rav and avng vrythng unchangd gv u o rathr puing rut uch a agnary a and voc Adtng wdd poon and onta into th quantu thory and avng vrythng unchangd crat havoc with th aw o intrrnc Adtng conadcon into a yt o da agdy connctd by th aw o tandard ogc and avng vg unchangd ak u art vry tatnt Obvouy w ha hav to ak o urthr chang or xap w ha hav to chang o ru o drvaon in th at ca Carrying out th chang rov th prob and rarch can procd a pannd (Scnc pracc contaning ncontnci i arady arrangd in th rght way) But ay an obcon that rqunty rad at th pont: how wi th rut o th rarch b vauatd i undanta tandard hav bn rovd? For xap what tandard how that rarch n vioaon o contnt ncra produc thor which ar be than thr nnt rva a ad a w paragraph ago? Or what tandard how that thor n conct wth obrvaon hav othng to or wh thir obrvaonay pccab rva hav not? Do not a dcon to accpt unuua thor and to rct faiar on au tandard and i t not car thror that cooogica nvgaon cannot to provd atav to a tandard? Th ar o o th quon on har with rng rguar in th dicuion of undanta prncp uch a Cf Cher I 6, e fes 9 I
236
AGAIST METHOD
onssteny ontent nease obsevatonal aequay, falsiablity an so on It s not fult to anse them It is aske ho eseah leang to the evson of stanas s to be evaluate Fo example hen an on hat gouns shall e be sase that eseah ontanng nonsstenes has eveale a fatal shotomng of the stana of nonontaon? The ueson makes as ltle sense as the queson hat measung nsuments ill help us to exploe an as yet unspee egion of the univese We on't kno the egion e annot say hat ll ok n it To avane e must eithe ente the egion o stat making onjetues about t We ente the egion by aulang unusual ntelletua sial, emoonal tenenies no mate ho stange they may seem hen vee though the spetales of establshe theoes o stanas. It oul etany be sily to sega pysltur that o not agee th eeply ngaine spual noons But it s eualy shotsghte to utal that o not seem to t into the physal unvese Fantases an in fat the ene subjevty ofhuman beings ae just as muh a pat of the ol as eas stones an uaks an thee is no eason hy e shoul hange them to potet the late Sma onseaons apply to the stanas that ae suppose to e ou thoughts an aons They ae not stable an they annot be stabe by yng them to a paula pont of ve Fo istotle knolege as quatave an obsevaonal Toay knolege s quantave an theoeal at least as fa as ou eang naual sensts ae onee Wo s ght? That epens on hat kin of nfomaon has pege saus an hs n u epens on the ultue o the ultual leaes ho use the nfomaon Many people thout muh thought pefe ehnology to hamony ith Natue hene quantave an theoea nfomaon s egae as eal an quales as appaent an seona But a ultue that enes on humans pefes pesonal aquantane to abstat elaons (ntelligene quoents eeny stass) an a natualsts appoah o that of moeula bologists ll say that knolege s qualitave an ll nteet quantave las as bookkeepng eves not as elements of ealty Combning the onseaons of the last to paagaphs e see tha even the appaently haest sen fa an be issolve by esons unemnng the values that make a fat an/o by eseah that eplaes it by fats of a ieent kin. This s not a ne poeue Phosophes fom Pamenes to 0thentu (unaleta) mateasts an sensts fom Galleo an Desates to Mono use t to evalue an o elae as mee appeaane the quatave featues of human lfe But hat an be use to suppot
IGHEE
237
scence cn lso e sed nst t The (cltrl) mesrn nstruments tht seprte relty rom ppernce chne nd must chne when we moe rom one cltre to nother nd rom one hstorcl ste to the net, jst s or physcl mesrn nstruments chne nd mst chne when we lee one physcl reon (one hstorcl perod) nd enter nother.
9 Sc r sgl rdo or b rdo r s cr pl wo bcom somd o s prc s bs d dsg I mo sould b srdom s us curc r ow srdom s
sha now sarze the arguments of the preceg chapters by ng to anser the folowg three quesons 1 . s sc How o sciensts procee, how o ther stanars er from the stanars of other entepses? 2. 's so gr bou sc What are the reasons that mght compe us to prefer the scences to other fos of lfe an ways of gatheng knowege? 3 ow r w o us sc d wo c mr My answer to the st queson is that the wie vergence of invuas, schools, histocal peos, enre sciences makes t exemely cult to ien compehensive pncples ethe of metho, o of fact The wor science may be a sgle wo - but thee s no singe enty that correspons to that wo In the omain of mod we have sciensts like Salvao Lua who want to e eseach to events pemitng song nfeences' peicons that wll be son ly supporte an shaply ejecte by a cleacut expementa step Accong to Luia the expeiments (Lua an Delbrueck, 1943) whch showe that the resistane of bactea to phage invasion s a resut of envionmentnepenent mutaons an not of an aaptaon to the envionent ha preisely tis chaacte Thee was a spe preon luctuaons, from one cultue to the next, of surviving olones of bactea on an agar contag an excess of bacteophages wou be small the rst case, but woul contan
f
S.E. a Slot Mhine a Bk Tt Te New ok 985, p
238
N NE T E E N
9
avalanches n the second The pedcon could be tested n a smple and saghtfoad way and thee was a decsve result (The esult refuted amarcksm, whch was popula among bacteoogsts but paccally exnct esewhee a rst dcaon of the compexty of scence) Scensts ncned n the manne of ua show a consdeabe lack of enthusasm n the bg poblems" of the nverse or of the early ath o n the concenaon of cabon dode the uppe aosphere, subjects that ae oaded wth weak nferences' n a way they are connung the Astotean approach whch demands close contact wth e eence and obects to folowng a plausble dea to the btte end However, ths was pecsey the procedure adopted by ste, by eseaches celesa mechancs between Newton and Poncar, by the proponents of atomsm and, late, the knec theo, by Hesenberg dung the al stages of max mechancs and by almost all cosmologsts nsten's rst cosmoogca paper s a purey theoecal execse contanng not a sngle asonomca constant The subect of cosmolo tsef fo a long e found few suppoters among physcsts Hubble the obseer was respected, the rest had a hard me
Jouals accptd paprs from obsrs gng thm only th most curso rfrng whras our own pap always had a s passag, to a pont whr on bcam qut wo out wth lanng ponts of mathmacs, physcs, fact and logc to th obtus mnds who constut th mystous anonymous class of rfrs, dong thr work, lk owls, th darknss of th nght.5
s t not ealy sange', asks sten, that human bengs are noay deaf to the songest agument whle they are aways cled to oveesmate measung accuaces?' but ust such an over esang of measung accuaces s the ue epdemoo, demogaphy, genecs, specoscopy and n other subects The vaety ceases when we move to scences e cultural 2 . 5
b . 9 b De oelo 29a2. F Hoe Tea a EM Bso (es osmolo ad Ashysi haca
and London, 1982, p. 2 1
6. Lee o Ma Bo quoe fom he BoEisei L New ok 9 92
40
AGAIST METHD
anthropooy where a ompomse has to be found beween the eets of personal ontat and the dea of an objee approah on the one sde and the praa needs fo quik aon and theoea thooghness on the othe To hear a seminar at a uniersity about modes of poduon in the moing, wites obert Chambers and then attend a meeng in a goeent oce aout agricultual extension in the aften leaes a hioid feeling. One mght not know that th efeed to the same small farme and might dout whether either diussion has anything to conute to the other7
But is t not ue that sensts peed a methodal way aod aidents and pay attenon to obseaon and eerment? ot always Some siensts propose theores and alulate ases whih hae ltle or no onneon with reality The great growh tehnia ahieements whih began the nneteenth enu we read Prands eures Funma of yd- and Aomechan left ienc knowledge far ehind. The multudious poles of pracce could not e answered y the hydrynamics of Eule they could not een discussed. This was chiey ecause stang from Euler's equaons of moon the ience had ecome more and ore a purely academic analysis of the hypothecal friconless ideal uid'. This theoecal deelopment is assiated with the names of Helmhol Keln Lam and Rayleigh. The analycal resuts otained y means of this so called classical hydrynamics rtually do not agree at all with the praccal phenomena. . . . Therefore the engineers . . . put their rus i a mass of empical data collecely known as the science of hydraulics' a ranch of knowledge which ew more and more unlike hydro dynamics.
Aordg to Prand we hae a disordely oleon of facts on the one sde, sets of theores starng fom smple but ounerfaual assumpons on the other and no onneon beween the wo. More reeny the aoma appoah quantum mehanis and espeially quantum eld theo was ompaed by ynal obseers o the shakers, a egous se ofew England who bult sod bs . Rur ndn 983 p 9 8 G Teens Y 954 p 3
ETEE
41
nd led celbte lves o scenc equvlent of provng rgorous theorems nd clculng no cross secons 9 Yet quntum mechncs ths pprently useless cvty hs led to more coherent nd fr more ssfcto codcon of th fcts thn hd been cheved before, whle n hydrodymcs physcl coonsense occsonlly tued out to be less ccurte thn the results of rgorous proofs bsed on wldly unrelsc ssumpons erly exmple s Mxwells clculon of the vscosty of gses For Mxwell ths ws n exercse n theorecl mechncs n extenson of hs wor on the rngs of Stu Nether he nor hs contemporres beleved the outcoe - tht vscosty remns costnt over wde rnge of densty- nd there ws con evdence Yet more precse esurements conrmed the predcon ° Few people were pre pred for such tu of events Mthemcl curosty hd strted the wor crossferzon not generl prncples hd brought t to concluson Menwhle the stuon hs chnged n fvour of theo the ses nd sevenes when scence ws sl n publc fvour theo got the upper hnd t uverses, where t ncresgly replced professonl slls even n medce d specl subects such s bology or chems where erler mohologcl d substce relted reserch ws replced by study of molecules n cosmolo rm belef n the Bg Bg ow teds to devlue obserons tht clsh wth t Such obseons, wrtes C. Burbdge ar dlayd a h rfrng sag as ong as possbl wh h hop ha h auhor w gv up f hs dos no cur and hy ar publshd h scond ln of dfnc s o gnor hm If hy gv rs o som commn h bs approach s o ar smply ha hy ar hopssy wrong and hn f al ls fas an obsr may b hrand wh loss of lscop m unl h changs hs program 9 RF. Seater and A.S. Wghan PC pin tatti andA/ , e rk 964 . . Fr quanm mechancs cf secns 4 and 4 f Hans Pmas Chst Qantm Mechani and Redionm, Berne rk 98 aes cacuans are reruced n e citc Pap ofJam Ck Me ed W. ven e rk 965 (s ubshed n 89 . 3. The cncusn s stated n 39 A remakabe resu hee resented t us s that fths eanan fgaseus fcn be ue he cecent f fcn s ndeenden fthe densty Such a cnsequence f a mathemaca they s ve stang and the ny eemen have me th n the sbec des nt seem t cn t' Fr eames frm hydrdynamcs cf G B•rkhof, Hydrnamic, New York, 1955 sectons 20 and 2 .
Pbe m f Csmgn and Csmgy' n F Bea W Suenc and DF adre (eds N I in Astno, Cambdge 988 . 9.
242
A G A I S H
hus a we can say is that sciensts poceed in many deent ways that rues of method f menoned explictly ae ethe not obeyed at all or funcon at most ie rules of thumb and that impoant esuts come fom the conuence ofachievements poduced by sepaate and often concn ends he dea that "scenc nowede s in some way peculiay posve and free from dierences of opinion 2 s nothn but a chmaera he stuaon in the ats is qute siiar - as a mate of fact t curs in all areas of human acvity Cennino Cennnis L e of 30 contains praccal advice based on a rich expeience and compex sis Leon Batsta Abe's DelPtur of 35/6 a theoecal ease closely ed to cenal perspecve and acadec opca theo. Pespecve soon became a mania amon asts Leonado and Raphael then pointed out the one in wods the othe paccally (cf. the sphere on the iht hand side of his Schl fAhs in the Stanza dela Senatura of the Vacan), that a pcture that is to be viewed under noma cicumstances fom a comfoabe but not weldened distance and with both eyes wide open cnnot obey the rues of cenal perspecve hey theeby caied the deence beween physiooical opcs and eomeical opcs whch Keple moe than a centu later, sll ed to bide by an easily refuted hypothesis (cf C. 9, text to fooote 50). But cena pespecve remained a basis on which various chanes were supemposed. So fa have been taln about predure, or method Now methods that are not used as a mater of habit, without any thouht about the reasons behnd them ae often ed to metaphysical beliefs For exampe, a radca form of empiicsm assumes either that humans are the measure of thins or that they are in harmony wth them Applied consstently methodoloica rules may produce esuts whch aee with the correspondn metaphyscs. Luias pocedue is an exampe. t dd not fai; it heped to buid a subect which today is at the forefront of reseach Einstens appoach dd not end in disaste; it led to one of the most fascinan mode theoies enera reavity. But methods are not rescted to the area whee they scoed the rst iumphs. Luias equiements fo example, also tued up in cosmolo; they had been used by Heber Cus in his 'and debate with Harow Shapey; by Ambarzumjan who opposed empicism to absact principes; and they ae now bein appied by Halton Arp Mararet Geer and thei colaboatos hateve the esuts a world buit up in the manner of Luia has 2 R , ou of, ew r 95 p.
IT
43
itte in common with the word of Ete and thi word again dier conideraby from the world of Bohr. Johann Theodore e decribe detail how abact worldview ung cor reonding method roduced reult which owly led them with emrical content. 13 He dicue the folowing view. Firt, he asronomial view, whch reted on mathemaca renement o acon at a ditance aw and wa extended (by Couomb, Neumann, Amre and other) to eeccity and magnem. Lalace' theo o cailarty wa an outtandig achievement of th aroach Secondly heaomiview which ayed an imortant role chemca reearch (exame terehemitry) but wa ao ooed by chemit Thirdy, he kinei an mechanical view, which emloyed atom in the area ofheat and elecic henomena. For ome cient atomim wa the foundaon of everything. Fourthy, he phsil view, which tried to achieve unveralty i a derent way, on the ba o general noon uch a the noon of ener It coud be connected with the nec vew but often wa not. hyician, hyioogt and chemit like ayer, Helmholtz, du Boi Reymond and, the raccal area, Liebig were outtanding rereentave of thi vew the econd half of the 9th centu whie Otwad, ach and Duhem extended it into the 20th. Starng hi decon of he moholol view, erz wrte The dierent aspects of nature which have revewed n the foreg chapters and the vaious sciences which have been elaborated by ther aid, compise what may appropiately be teed the absact study of natural objects and phenomena Though all the methods of reasoning with which we have so far become acquanted oiginated pimay through obseaon and the reecon over things natural they have this in common that they - for the puose of examnaon - remove their obects out of the posion and suoundngs which nature has assigned to them: that they strt them This press of absacon is either literay a press of removal from one place to another from the great work - and storehouse of nature herself to the sml workm the laborato of the expementer; or - where such removal is not possible - the press is carried out merey in the realm of contempaon one or two specia propees are noted and described, whist the number of colateral data are for the moment disregarded [A third method not deveoped at the me is the creaon of 'unnatural condions and thereby the producon of unnatural phenomena.] 3. to ofEa oght th th Ct (t pushed 2.
244
AGAIST ETHD
here i, moreover, n addion to the apect ofconvenence one ve powerfu inducement for cienc worer to perevere in their pre of abacon hi the pracca uefulne of uch reearche in the art and indute . he want and creaon of arcial ife have thu proved the greatet incenve to the abtract and arcia treanent of natural object and pree for which the chemcal and eeccal laboratore wth the caculang rm of the mathemacian on the one ide and the worhop and facto of the other have in the coure of the centu become o renowned here i, however, n the human mind an oppoite interet which fortunately counteract to a coniderable extent the oneded woring of the pirt of abtracon cience h i the genuine love of nature, the concioune that we loe al power if, to any great extent, we ever or weaen that connecon which e u to the world a it i - to thing real and natural: it nd it expreion the ancient legend of the mghty giant who derved all hi trength from h mother earth and collaped if evered from her In the tudy of natura object we meet therefore] wth a cla of tudent who are atacted by thing a they heir] cience are the uy decrpve cience, in oppoion to the abtract one 14
have quoted this descipon at length fo it shows how dieent pocedues est on and povide evidnce fo, dient wodviews inally, Mez mnons the getic view, the pchhysil view, the vitalistic view the stattical view togthe with thei pocedues and thei ndngs. What can a single comphensiv woldview o science o a singl comphnsiv ida o science oe und such cicumstances? t can oe a suey, a list smia to the list given by Me, numang the achivmnts and dawbacks of the vaious appoachs as wll as the clashs btwen them and it can iden scence with this complex and somwhat scatted was on many onts. Alteavely it can put on viw on top and subodnate th oths to it, ithe by psudodeivaons, o declaing thm to be maninglss Reduconists lov to play that game. O it can disegad the diences and pesent a paste job whe ach pacula viw and th esults it has achivd is smoothly connected wth th est thus poducing an impssiv and cohnt edice the scinc woldviw . Id. Vo. ew York 1 96, pp
NINEEEN
45
Expressing it dierently we may say that the assumpon of a single coheren worldview that underlies all of science is eithe a etaphysical hypothesis ng to ancipate a future unity, or a pedagogical fake; or it is an attempt to show by a judicious up and downgading of disciplines, that a synthesis has aleady been achieved This is how fans of uniformty peeded in the past (cf Platos lis of subjects in Chapter vi of his Rubl), these ae the ways that are sl being used today A moe eaisc account howeve, would point out that [t]hee is no simple scienc" map of eality - or if there wee, it would be much too compicated and unwiedy to be grasped o used by anyone Bu thee ae many dieen maps of eaity fom a variety of scienc vewpoints t may be objeced tha we ive in the 20th centu not in he 19h and that many unicaons which seemed impossibe then have been achieved by now Examples ae sasca theodynamcs molecu la biolo, quantum chems and supersngs These ae indeed ourishig subects but they have no poduced he unity the phase the' scienc vew of the wold insinuates Actualy, the siuaon is not ve dieent fom that which Me had noced in the 19th centu Truesdell and others connue the physica appoach Pandtl maigned ue, Truesdel paises fo havng povded rigoous concepts fo eseach Mopholo though given a ow status by some and declaed to be dead by others has been evved by ecologists and by oenz's study of anima behavou (wch added s of moon to the ode sa s) and it has aways been of imporance in galacc eseach (Hubbe's classicaon) Havng been i the doghouse, cosmoo is now beig coued by high ene physicists but clashes with the phiosophy of compementa accepted by the same group Coenng on the poblem M Kafatos and R Nadeu write: Te essenal equiement of te Copenagen inteetaon that te expeimental setup must be taken into account wen making obseaons is seldom met in obseaons wit cosmological import [toug suc obseaons ey on igt, te padi case of complementaity].
Moeove, the obseaons of A, M Gele and others have h Za, Tehng and LeangAut S and Se, Cabde, 980, 9 6 Ceety ad Cs, n M Kafat (ed), Bes r num eo and the Conto ofhe Un, deh, 980, p 263.
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thrown consdrb doubt on th homogn ssumon whch ys cn rol n t Extndd to I ,000 mgsc, Gr's sch my bow u th n subjct W hv bd mtrlsm n som rts (mocu boo, for xml), modst to rdc subcvsm n othrs (som vrsons of quntum msurmnt, nthoc rncl) Thr mny fscnng sults, scul ons, ttmts t ntrton nd t s ctny worth knowng thm But sng thm togth nto sngl cohnt scnc' worldvw, rocdur whch hs th blssngs vn of th Po ths s gong too fr Aftr ll, who cn sy tht th world whch so snuously rssts uncon lly s s ductos nd mt hyscns wnt t to b - dy, unform, th sm vwh? Bsds, s ws shown n Chtrs st job mnts rcsly thos concts tht t scnc gong n th st nd wll connu nsrng ts rcons f sd At ths ont som dfnds of unform rs to hghr lvl Scnc my b comx, thy sy, but t s sll ron' ow th word ronl' cn thr b usd s colcng bg for vr of durs - ths would b ts nomnlst ntrton or t dscrbs gnl ftur found n v sngl scnc con cct th st dnon but I jct th scond n th scond cs ronl s thr dnd n nrrow wy tht xcluds sy, th ts; thn t so xcluds lg scons of th scncs O t s dnd n wy tht lts ll of scnc suv; thn t so s to ovmng, comdy nd dogghts Thr s no wy of dng scnc' by somthng song nd mo cohnt thn st I com to th scond quson wht's so grt bout scnc? Th r vrous msurs of grss Pula, fmr wth som rsults nd th blf tht thy otnt s on of thm ow t s u tht dst rodc swngs towds th scncs nd wy fom thm thy r sl n hgh rut wth th gnl ubc or, rthr, not th scn, but mythcl monst scnc' (n th sngul - n Grmn t sounds vn mo ssv De Wssscha) For wht th gnl ublc sms to ssum s tht th chvmnts thy rd bout n th ducon gs of th nwss nd th thrts thy sm to rcv com from sngl sourc nd r roducd by unform rocdu Thy now tht bolo s dffrn fom hyscs whch s dffrn fom goo But Cf. hs message n the casn f the 3h annvea f en's Pnipia pubshed n John Pal on Sie and Religion e ame 99, esp M6
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these dscplnes, t s assumed ase when the scenc way' s apped to deent topcs; the scenc way tsef, howeve emans the same I have ted to ague that scenc pacce s much moe dvese. Addng that scensts eep complanng about the scenc llteacy of the geneal publc and that by the genea publc' they mean the Weste mddle class not Bovan peasants (fo example), we have to conclude that the populaty of scence s a ve doubtful matte ndeed What about prcal aana? The answe s that scence' somemes wos and somemes doesn't. Some scences (economc theo, fo exmpe) ae n a petty so shape. Othes ae sucently moble to tu dsaste nto umph. he n so beuse h are no ed o any palar mhod or worldvew The fact that an appoach s scenc' accodng to some cealy fomulated cteon theefoe s no guaantee that t w succeed. Eh e mus bejuded sarae especay today when the fea ofndusal esponage the wsh to ovetae competos on the way to a Nobel ze, the uneven dstbuon of funds, natona vaes fea of accusaons (of malpacce, pagasm waste of funds etc.) put escons on what some deames, many phoso hes among them sl egad as a fee ntelectual adventue'. 8 The queson of h naly emans unesoved ove of uth s one of the songest moves fo eplacng what eally happens by a seamned account, o, to expess t n a ess pote manne ove of uth s one of the songest moves fo lyng to oneself and to othes Besdes, the quantum theo seems to show n the pecse manne so much beoved by the admes of scence, that eaty s ethe one, whch means thee ae no obsees and no thngs obseed, o t s many, n whch case what s found does not est n tsef but depends on the appoach chosen
R
What ae the vews that ae beng compaed wth scence when t s declaed to be supeo E.O Wlson, the fathe' of socobology, wtes: eligon . . wil endue fo a long me as a vital foce in sety. ike te mytcal gant Antaeus wo dew ene fom is mote te eat eigon cannot be defeated by tose wo may cast it down. Te spitua weakness of scenc natualsm s due to te fact tat it as no suc pima souce ofpowe . . So te me as come to ask does 8 Ths was rezed by govement dvsers fter the postwa euphor hd w . See Joseph Benvd St Growth Berkeey, 991 55, quoted above.
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a way es o diver e power of reigion ino e seices of e grea new enerise
Fo ison the main featue of the ateaves is that they have power I regard this as a somewhat narrow harateriaon old views also answe quesons about oigins and puoses whih sne or later aise in almost eve human being Answes o these quesons wee avaable to Keple and Newton and wee used by them in thei eseah they ae no longe available today, at leas not wthin the sienes They are pa of nonsien wodviews whh theefoe have muh to oe, also to siensts en este Civiiaon invaded what is now aled the Thd old it imposed its own ideas of a pope envionment and a rewading life I theeby disupted deiate pates of adaptaon and eated poblems that had not ested befoe Both human deeny and some appeiaon of the many ways in whh humans an lve wth natue pompted agents of development and publi health to think in moe ompex o, as some ould say, moe elavis' ways Thee est appoahes, the appoah alled Pia envionmental Cae' among them whh oe legal, poial and sien infomaon but modied in aodane wth the needs, the wshes and, what is most impoant, he sl and he owledge of loal populaons Siialy, the movement alled libeaon theology has modied Chuh dne to bing it lose to the spiitual needs of the poo and disadvantaged, espeialy in South Ameia Let me point out, inidentally, that not al ideas whh seem repulsive to the pophets of a New Age ome from siene The idea of a wold mae and the elated idea that nature is mateal to be shaped by man should not be blamed on mode, ie postCaesian siene It is ode and songe than a puely philosophal dine ould eve be The expession wold mahine is found in Pseudo Dionysius Aeopagita, a mys ofunknown iden who wote about 500 D and had emendous inluene Oesme who died in 138 as bishop of Lisieux, ompaes the univese to a vast mehanial k set unning by God so that al th wheels move as hamoniously as possible' The senment an be easy undestd . Hn Nr Cmdge s 1 2 pp. 1 2f 20. Ls Ld in Commni-Bd Eironmt Mngt Peedngs fthe 1 Pm nvnment Ce Whp ed. G Brn nen
Cue f Pm eth Ce Mnge t Dsct Leve n Devepng Cunes stut Sue d Snt Rme I . Fr mre ppur presentn cf Gr rn Pm nvnment Ce: F nvnment Advtes nd P ke C Co, fhcmng
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thi wa the time when mechanical clc f atnding inticacy and elaban wee cntcted all ve Epe - eve twn wa pped t have ne. Lynn White J., fm whe b I have taen thi infman, al decibe the change f attde that cced in the Calingian Age: e od Roman Caendars ad occasonaly sown genre scenes of uman acvity bu e domnan radon (wc connued n Byzanum was o depct te monts as passve personcaons beng symbos of arbues. e new Carongan caendar wc set e paern for e Mdde Ages . sows a coercve atude towards natura resources e pctures [are about scenes of plougng aesng, woodcoppng peope knocng down acos for te pgs pg saugerng Man and Nature are now wo ngs and man s te maser
T m p thee i n cienc wldview' jt a thee i n nifm entepie cience - except in the mind f metaphyician, chlmate and plician yng t mae thei nan cmpe ve. Sll, thee ae many thng we can ea fm the cience Bt we can al lea fm the hmanie, fm eligin and fm the emnant fancent tadn that vived the nlaght fWete Civilian. N aea i nied and pefect, few aea ae eplve and cmpletely witht meit Thee i n bjecve pinciple that cld diect away fm the pemaet elign' the pemaet at twad the me mde, and mch me expenive pemaet cience Beide, thee ae lage aea f wledge and acn in which we e pcede witht any idea a t the cmpaave excelence. example medicne, which, thgh nt a cience, ha inceaingly been cnnected wth cienc eeach. Thee ae many fahn and chl in medicine jt a thee ae many fahin and chl n pychl. It fllw, t, the dea f a cmpain f Wete medicne with the medical pcede de nt mae ene. Secndly, ch a cmpain i ften againt the aw, even f thee hld be vlntee: a tet legaly impbe. Adding t th that health and ice ae ctedependent cncept we ee that thee ae dmain, ch a medicine with n cienc anwe t qen 2. Thi nt ealy a dawbac. The each f bjecve gidance i in cnct with the idea individal epnibili whch allegedy i an imptant eda ehnoo and Soa Change , 1960 pp 56f
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A G A T M E T H OD
ingedent o a 'raona or scenc age It shows ear, ndecision a yeag or authoty and a dsregard or the new opportunies that now est: we can buid wordviews on the basis o a personal choce and thus unte, or ourselves and or our ends what was once separated by a sees ohistocal accdents On the other hand, we can agee that i a word ul o scenc products sciensts may be given a specia status just as henchmen had a special status at mes o socia disorder or pests had when beig a cizen concided with beig the member o a snge universa Church We can aso agee that appeaig to a chimaera (such as that o a uniorm and coherent 'scienc wordview) can have important polica consequences In 84 Commander Pe usig orce, opened the pos o Hakodate and Shmoda to Amecan ships or supply and ade This event demonsated the miitary ieority o Japan The members o the Japanese enlightenment o the eary 87s, Fukuzawa among them, now reasoned as ollows Japan can keep its idependence ony i it becomes songer It can become songer only with the help o science It wl use science eecvely only i it does not just pracse science but also beieves i the undelyng ideology To many adonal Japanese this ideoogy 'the scenc wordvew was barbaric But, so the oowers o Fukuwa argued, it was necessary to adopt babac ways, to regard them as advanced, to ioduce the whole o Weste Civizaon in ode to suive Having been thus pepaed Japanese sciensts sn banched out as thei Weste colleagues had done beoe and asied the unorm ideoogy that had staed the deveopment The lesson I daw om this sequence o events is that a uniorm 'scienc view o the wold may be useulrpele ng t gives them movaon without tying them down It is ke a ag Though peseng a sigle patte it makes peope do many deent thngs However da r ou (phosophers, yby-nght myscs prophets o a New Age) It suggests to them the most naowmnded regious comment and encouages a simlar naowmndedness on their pat 22 Wolfgang Pali who wa eeply onee abot the intelletal itaon of the e eane that ene an religion agan be nite etter to M. ie 8 Agt 948 aee bt wol a enrely in e pirit of Pali that the niaon
hol be a onal atter; it hol not be pepae by phloophial-ien alhei ofthe in an ie by eir inio n eaon t eent in the Thir Wol where a ong faith ll ive) 23. Detal in aen laer eJane Enlghtt, abrige 969 or the lial baon f hapte 3 an 4 of har tor Hto ofM Jn Haonwoh 982
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51
Wht hve sid so fr lredy contins my nswer to queson 3 community w use science nd sciensts in wy ht rees with its vlues nd ims nd it will correct he scienc instuons in its midst to rin them closer to hese ims The oecon ht science is selfcorrecin nd hus needs no outside interference overlooks rst ht eve enterise is selfcorrecn (look t wht hppened to the Ctholic Church fter cn I) nd secondly tht democrcy he selfcorrection of he whole whch tries to chieve more humne wys of livin overrules the selfcorrecon of the prts which hs more nrrow im - unless the prts re iven tempor independence Hence in democrcy locl populons not only wil ut lso ould use the sciences in wys most suitle o them The oection ht cizens do not hve he experse to ude scienc mters overlooks tht importnt prolems ofen lie cross the oundries ofvrious sciences so ht sciensts wihin these sciences dont hve he needed experse eiher Moreover douful cses lwys produce experts for he one side experts for the other side nd experts in etween But he competence of the ener pulic could e vsly improved y n educon tht exposes expert flliiity insted of cn s if it did not exist
20 epint fview nring this bk nt the rlt fa wel-planned train fthght bt famts pmpted accital cnte Anger at the wantn tin fltral achi frm which we al cld he leaed the cnceited assrance with which sme intelea inteere with the l fpele and cntpt r the treac phras th se t belh their me w and stil is the mterce behind m wrk
he poblem of knowege an ecaon in a fee society st sck me ng my tenre of a state felowship at the eima Instt z Methoologischen Eeeng es Detschen heates (1 946), whch was a connaon of the Detsches heate Moska ne the ectorshp ofMamValenn San stents ofthe nstt peocaly viste theaes in Easte Germany A specia ain Lke many pepe fmy generan I as nvve n the Secn Wr War. hs event ha tte nuence on my thnkng Fr me the ar as a nusance, not a mora prbem Befre the ar I ha ntene t stuy asnmy, acng an snng an to pracse these prfessns smutaneousy. ha eceent teache (Af Voge, my snng teacher ha an nteaona reputaon an taught outstanng opera snge such as oan Bayey) an ha ust overcome sme mar voca cues hen I receve my raft noce ( as eghteen at the me) Ho nconvenent I thought. Why the he shou pacpate n the ar games ofa bunch ofots Ho o I get out oft Vaous attempts msre an I became a soer I appe fr cers anng t avo buets as ong as possbe. he aempt as nt entrey success; I as a eutenant before the ar ha come to an en an foun mysefn the me fthe Gen reeat n Poan an then n East Gemany suoune by eeng cvans, nfan unts, tanks, Psh auaes hom I sueny cmmane (the hgher oce qucky sappeare hen matte became scky) he he coou chas then appeare to me ke a stage an I became careess. A buet ht me on my rght han, a secon buet graze my face, a thr gt stuck n my spne I fe to the un, unabe to rse but th the happy thought the ar s ver for me, no at ast I can retu to sngng an my beove asonomy boks'. It as ony much ater that I became aare of the mora probems ofthe enre age. It seems t me that these probems are s th us hey arse henever an nvua r a oup obecvzes pena cncepons of a o fe an ac accorngy Cf aro R, pp. 309 hs epans the casoa vence f my arumen
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ught us m ty t ty W vd dnd tld t th ts wthd w th plys At h pmn th publ ws sd t mn std whl w sttd dsussn wht w hd just sn h w lssl plys but th w ls nw plys whh td nlys n vnts Mst th m thy dlt wth th w th sstn n Nz Gmny hy w ndsn gushbl m l Nz plys ulgzng th vty th Nz undgund n dm unts In bth ss th w dlgl sphs utbuss snty nd dngus stuns n th ps nd bbs tdn hs puzzld m nd I mmntd n n th dbts hw shuld ply b stutud s tht n gnzs t psntng th gd sd? Wht hs b ddd t th n t mk th stuggl th sstn ght pp mlly sup t th stuggl n llgl Nz n Aust b 193? It s nt sunt t gv hm th ght slgns thn w tk hs supty gntd w d nt shw whn t nssts. N n hs nblty hs humnty' b th dsngushng mk; v mvmnt hs sundls s wl s nbl ppl mng ts llws A plywght my us dd tht sphsn s luxu n ml bttls nd gv blkwht unt. H my d hs lws t vt but t th xpns tung thm nt bbns. Wht thn s th slun? At th m I ptd Esnstn nd uthlss ppgnd th ght us' I dn't w whth ths ws bus ny dp nvn mn bus I ws d lng by vnts bus th mgnnt t Esnstn. dy I wuld sy tht th h must b lt t th udn. h pywght psnts hts nd tls st I h s shuld b n th sd sympthy hs sunds umstns nd sung ply s lg l n th n vl nd vl nnns s d ths ntnns thmslvs nd th gnl tndny s t mphs th lt. h plywght (nd hs llgu th th) must nt t t npt th dsn th udn ( th pupls) pl t by dsn hs wn thy shuld tu ut t b npbl mng up th wn mnds. Unr no run u o b orl r' A ml whth gd vl tus ppl nt slvs nd slv vn slv n th sv h Gd Gd Hmsl s th mst bjt ndn l. hs s hw I s th stu n tdy. Hwv t tk m lng m b I vd t hs vw At y n Wm I wntd t dd th sns nd th humns t th ts nd th th I lt Wm nd bm studnt (hst ul sns) t th mus nstut u
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Oserreichische Geschichforschun which is par of he Universi of Vienna. Laer on I added physcs and asronoy and so nally reued o he subjecs had decded o pursue before he inerrupons of he Second World War There were he followin inuences. l) The Kr Cr. Many of us science and enineerin sudens were ineresed in he foundaons of science and in broader philosophical probles. We visied philosophy lecures. The lecures bored us and we were soon hrown ou because we ased quesons and ade sarcasc rears sill reeber Professor Heinel advisn e wih raised ars: Herr Feyerabend, enweder se hale das Maul, oder sie verlassen den Voresunsaal! We did no ive up and founded a philosophy club of our own. Vicor Kraf, one of y eachers, becae our chairan. The ebers of he cub were osly sudens, 2 bu here were also visis by facul ebers and forein diniaries. Juhos, Heinel, Hollischer, von Wrih, Anscobe, Wiensein cae o our eeins and debaed wih us. Wiensein, who oo a on e o ae up his ind and hen appeared over an hour lae, ave a spiried perforance and seeed o prefer our disrespecfu aiude o he fawnin adraon he encounered elsewhere Our discussions sared in 1 949 and proceeded wih inerrupons up o 1952 (or 1953) Alos he whole of y hesis was presened and analysed a he eens and soe of y early papers are a direc oucoe of hese debaes (2) The Kraf Circle was par of an oraniaon called he Atn Cog Soc. The Sociey had been founded in 1945 by Ausian ressance hers o provide a foru for he exchane of scholars and ideas and so o prepare he polical unicaon of urope There were seinars, lie he Kraf Circe, durin he acadeic year and ineaonal eens durin he suer The eeins oo place (and sl ae pace) in Apbach, a sall ounain villae in Tro Here I e ousandin schoars, ariss, poicians and owe y acadeic career o he friendly help of soe of he. I also bean suspecn ha wha couns in a public debae are no aruens bu Ma f te ave w bece scetss egees J Saga s Pfess f ateatcs a te Uvers f s Herch Echh ec f New Have bsear Gbegee Bua avse eecrc s we Erch Jasch wh uch s, e ebers f ur crce a te asrca bsear a aer becae a f sse seusse scess, rg use ras f ew urses 3 t Me, brher frt Me f he Me ubsg huse was f a ears he ac eaer a gaer
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certain ways of presenng ones case To test the suspicion inteened in the debates defndng absurd vews with great assurance was consumed by fear after al was just a student surrounded by bigshots but havng once attended an acng schoo proved the case to my sasfacon The dicues of scc raonaity were made ve cear by (3) Fel Ehrha, who arrved in Vienna in 1947 We, the students of physics mathemacs, asonomy had heard a lot about We knew that he was an excellent expermenter and that hs lectures were performances on a grand scale which his assistants had to prepare for hours n advance We knew that he had taught theorecal physcs whch was as exceponal for an expermentast then as it is now We were aso familar with the persstent rumours that denounced h as a charlatan Regarding ourselves as defenders of the purity of physcs we ooked foard to exposing h in pubic Atany rate our curiosty was arousedand we were not disappointed Ehrenhaft was a mountain of a man, ful of vtalty and unusu�l deas His lectures compared favourably (or unfavourably, depend ing on the pont of ew) with the more rened performances of his colleagues Are you dumb? Are you stupd? Do you really agree with eveg say? he shouted at us who had intended to expose him but sat n sent astonshment at his performance The queson was more than jused for there were large chunks to swallow Reavity and quantum theo were reected at once, and almost as a matter of course, for beng idle speculaon n ths respect Ehrenhafts attude was ve cose to that of Stark and Lenard both of whom he menoned with approval But he went further and crcized the foundaons of classca physics as well The rst thing to be removed was the law of inera: undsturbed obects nstead of going in a straight lne were supposed to move in a helix Then came a sustaned attack on the prnciples of elecomagnec theo and especaly on the equaon dv B = 0 Many years before the fundamental debate he produced convncng evdence for mesoscopic magnec monopoles Then new and surprsng properes of lght were demonsated and so on and so forth Each demonsaon was accompaned by a few gently ironcal remarks on school physcs and the theorecians who bult castles in the air without considerng the experiments wch Ehrenhaft devised and connued devsng n all elds and whch produced a pethora of inexpcable resuts We had soon an opportunity to wiess the attude of orthodox physicsts n 1949 Ehrenhaft came to Apbach n that year Popper conducted a semnar on posophy Rosenfeld and MHL Pce taught physics and plosophy of physcs (mainy from Bohrs
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comments on instein which had st appeaed, Max Hatmann biology, Dncan Sandys taled on problems of Brish polics, Haye on economcs and so on There was Hans Thrring, the senior theoretical phsicist from Vienna, a sperb teacher who constant tried to impess on s that thee wee more mpotant things than scenc who had taght phsics to Feigl, Popper as wel as the pesent athor and was an ear and ver acve member of the peace movement His son Walter Thiring, now Professor of Theoeca Phscs in Vienna, was also pesent a ver disngished adence and a ver critical one henhaft came well prepared He set p a few of his simple experiments in one of the contr hoses of pbach and invted everone he cold a hands on to have a oo. Ever da from two o thee in the afteoon pacipants went b in an attde of wonde and eft the blding (if the were theoeca phsicists, that is as if the had seen something obscene Apat fom these phsical preparations Ehrenhaft also carred ot, as was his habit, a beafl pece of advesng. The da before his lectre he attended a fa technical tal b von Hae on The Sensor Oder (now availabe, in expanded form, as a boo. Ding the discssion he ose, bewildement and respect n his face, and stated in a most innocent voice Dea Pofesso Hae. This was a maellos, an admabe, a most leaed lecte. I dd not ndestand a single wod. . Next da his lecte had an overlow adence. In ths lectre Ehenhaft gave a brief accont of his discoveries, addig general obseations on the state of phsics. Now, gentemen, he concded trimphant, ting to Rosenfed and Prce who sat in the front row, what can o sa? And he answered immediatel. There is nothng at al o can sa with all or ne theories Sitzen mssen sie bleiben! Sll mssen sie se! The discsson, as was to be expected, was te trblent and it was conned for das with Thirrng and Popper taing Ehrenhafts side against Rosenfeld and Prce Confronted with the experiments the atter occasonall acted as some of Gaileos opponents mst have acted when confronted wth the telescope. The pointed ot that no conclsions col be dawn from complex phenomena and that a detaed anasis was needed In shot, the phenomena wee a Drk a word that was heard ite freent n the agments What was or attde in the face of a this commoon? None of s was prepared to gve p theor or to den its excelence. We fonded a Clb for the Salvaon of Theoeca Phsics and stated dscssing simple expeiments It ted ot that the elaon between theor and experiment was mch moe compex than is
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shown n textoos nd even n esech es Thee e few dgmc cses whee the theo cn e led wthout mjo djusents ut the est must e delt wth y occsonlly the doutful omons nd ul ssumons I nd t nteesng to ememe how ltte eect ll ths hd on us t the me. We connued to efe scons s f the dfcules we hd found hd not een n exesson ofthe ntue of thngs ut could e emoved y some ngenous devce yet to e dscoveed Only much lte dd Ehenhfts lesson sn n nd ou ttude t the me s well s the ttude of the ene ofesson ovded me then wth n excellent lluson of the ntue ofscenc on (4) Phil Frnk cme to Alch few yes e Ehenhft. He undemned common des of onl n deent wy y showng tht the guments gnst Coecus hd een efecty sound nd n geement wth exeence whle Geos edues wee unscenc when vewed fom mode stndont Hs oseons fscnted me nd I exmned the mtte futhe Chtes 8 to 1 1 e lte esult of ths study (I m slow woe) Fns wo hs een eted qute unfly y hosohes le Pum who efe smlsc models to the nlyss of comlex hstocl events. so hs des e now commonlce But t ws he who nnounced them when lmost eveone thought deenty. (5) In Venn I ecme cqunted wth some of the foemost Mst ntellectuls. Ths ws the esult of n ngenous PR jo y Mst students. They tued u - s dd we t l mo dscussons whethe the suject ws scence elgon olcs the thee o fee love. They tled to those of us who used scence to dcule the est whch ws then my fvoute occuon nvted us to dscussons of the own nd ntoduced us to Mst thnes fom ll elds. I cme to now Bethold Vetel the decto of the Bugthete Hnns Esle the comose nd musc theoecn d Wlter Hlitscher who ecme teche nd lte on one of my est fends. When stng to dscuss wth Holltsche I ws vng osvst I fvoued stct ules of esech nd hd only tyg smle fo the thee sc ncles of dleccs whch I hd ed n Stlns ltte mhlet on dlectcl nd hstoc mtelsm. I ws nteested n the est oson I hd ed to ed eve oo on elsm I could ly hnds on (ncludng Kes excelent Relisieng nd of couse Mtelism n Empiticism) ut I found tht the guments fo elsm woed only when the est ssumon hd 4 Cf Chpte 5 n ppmns
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already been intrdued Kle fr exame emhaszed the disnin between imressin and the thin the imressin is abu The disnn ves us realism nly if it haraerizes real features f the wrld - whih is the int a issue Nr was nvined by the remar tha siene is an essenaly realisti enerise Why shuld siene be hsen as an authrity And were there n sivis inereans f siene The salled aradxes f sivism hwever whih enin exsed with suh nsummae sill did nt imress me a all They arse nly if the sivis and the realist mde f seeh were mixed and they exsed their dierene They did n shw tha realism was beter thuh the fat tha realism ame with mmn sense ave the imressin that it was. Hllisher never resented an arument that wuld lead ste by se frm sivism int realism and he wuld have rearded the atem rdue suh an arumen as hilshial flly He rather develed the realis sin iself illustrated i by examles frm siene and mmn sense shwed hw lsely i was nneed with sieni researh and everyday an and s revealed its srenth was f urse always ssible t tu a reals redure in a sivis redure by a udiius use f ho hytheses and ho meanin hanes and did ths frequently and withu shame (in the Kraf Cirle we had develed suh evasins in a ne art Hllisher did nt raise seman ints r ins f methd as a ral ranalis mih have dne he nnued disuss nree ases unl fel rather flish with my absa bens Fr saw nw hw lsely realism was nneed with fas redures riniles valued and tha i h hp o bg h bou while sitivism merely srib the resuls in a rather mliaed way after they had been fund: realism had fruis sivism had nne This a leas is hw wuld sea day ln r my realis nversin A the me I beame a realis n beause I was nvined by any artiular arumen bu beause the sum al f realism lus the arumens in favur f it lus the ease wih whih i uld be alied siene and many ther thins I vauely fel bu uld n lay a ner n nally ook br o m 5 remember h Rechebch's swer o Dglers ccou of reltivty plye a mpo p Dgler exrapoled from wh could be cheved by smple mechacl operos (mufcture of a uclidea pla surface for example) while Rechebach poed ou how he ctul scture of he world would modi he resuls of hese operos he large s of course e Reichebc's ccou c be erpreed s a more ece predctve mche ad h i seemed mpressve o me oly because dd o slde o such a ierpretio. hc shows o wh exe he force of rgumes depeds o rrol chges of ttitude
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than the su total of posivis plus the arguents one could oer for it plus etc etc The coparson and the nal decision had uch in coon with the coparson of life in dierent counes weather character of peope elodiousness of language fd laws instuons weather etc etc) and the nal decision to take a job and to start life in one of the Experences such as these have played a decisive role in y attude towards raonalis. Wie accepted realis did not accept dialeccs and historcal aterais - y predilecon for absact arguents another posivst hangover) was sl too strong for that Today Stalins rules see to e preferable by far to the coplicated and epicycerdden standards of our ode frends of reason Fro the ve benning of our discussion Hollitscher ade it clear that he was a counist and that he woud y to convnce e of the intellectua and soca advantages of dalecca and hstorca aterals There was none of the eayouthed ay be wrong you ay be rght but together we shall nd the uth' talk with which crcal raonaists ebroider their attepts at indocnaon but which they forget the oent ther posion is serously endangered Nor did Holtscher use unfair eoonal or intellectual pressures Of course he crczed y attude but our personal relaons have not suered fro y reluctance to follow hi in eve respect. This is why Walter Hollitscher is a teacher while Popper who also cae to know quite well is a ere propagandist. At soe point of our acquaintance Hollitscher asked e whether would like to becoe a producon assistant of Brecht - apparently there was a posion avaiable and was being considered for it declined. For a whe thought that this was one of the biggest stakes of y life. Enrching and changing knowledge eoons attudes through the as now sees to e a uch ore fruitful enterprse and also uch ore huane than the attep to inuence nds (and nothing else) by words (and nothing else). eading about the tensions inside the Brecht Circle the alost relous attude of soe of its ebers now think that escaped ust in e. () urng a lecture (on escartes) gave at the Ausan Coege Society et Elbeh Anscombe a powerfu and to soe people orbidding Brsh philosopher who had coe to ienna to ea Geran for her anslaon of Wittgenstein's works. She gave e anuscrpts ofWittgenstein's ater wrngs and discussed the with e The discussions extended over onths and occasionaly preeded fro oing over unch un late into the evening They had a profound inuence upon e though it is not a all easy to speci parculars. On one occasion which reeber vvdy
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Anscom y a sris o slul qusons, mad m s how our concpon (and vn our prcpons) owlldnd and apparntly slcontand acts may dpnd on crcumstancs not apparnt in thm Thr ar ns such as physical ojcts whch oy a consaon principl in th sns that thy rtain thr idnty through a varity omanstaons and vn whn thy ar not prsnt at all whl othr ns such as pains and atrimags ar annihilatd with thr dsapparanc Th consaon principls may chang rom on dvlopmntal stag o th human organism to anothr and thy may dirnt or dirnt lanags (c Whors covrt classicaons' as dscrid in Chaptr 1 6) I conjcturd that such principls would play an important rol in scinc, that thy might chang during rvoluons and that dductiv raons twn pr rvoluona and postrvoluona thoris mght ron oas a rsult I xpland this arlyvrsion oincommnsuraility in Poppr's sminar (1952) and to a small group o popl in Anscoms at in Oxord (aso n 952 with Gach, von Wright and LL Hart prsnt) ut I was not al to arous much nthusiasm on ithr occasion Wittgnstin's mphasis on th nd or concrt rsarch and his ojcons to asact rasoning (Loo don't thin) somwhat clashd with my own tndncy towards astracss and th paprs in whch hs unc is nocal ar thror mixturs o concrt xampls and swping prncips 7 Wittgnstin was prpard to ta m on as a studnt n Camridg ut h dd or I arrivd Poppr cam my suprisor instad () I had mt in Alpach in 9 I admird hs rdom o mannrs, his ch, his disrspctul attud towards th Grman philosophrs who gav th procdings wight in mor snss than on, his sns o humour (ys, th ravly unnown Karl Poppr o 1 9 was v dirnt rom th stalishd Sir Karl o latr yars) and I also admrd his aility to rstat pondrous prolms in simpl and oualisc lanag Hr was a r mind, oyully putng orth hs das, unconcd aout th racon oth prossionals' Things wr dirnt as rgards ths idas thmslvs Th mmrs o our circl nw dducvism rom Krat who had wrttn aout it or Poppr, 8 th alsicaonist philosophy was tan or 6 Cf Cher 16, ext fte 7 Fr del cf my cmmet ee aer Wichahreiche Realimu und dieAuori Wcha Veweg Webade, 78 8 Cf. my reew f Kraf Ernnlehre BJPS Vl , 6, ad e. , ecd aragra. Cf. al the refeeces Per, Loc ofStc De M' Sy ofLoc Vl , Ld, 187, Chaer 14, ge deiled accu f the redue
TWTY
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granted in the physics senar of the conference under the chairmanship of Arthur March and so we did not understand what all he fuss was about 'Philosophy must be in a desperate state, we sad, if ivialies such as these can count as major discoveres. Popper himself did not seem to thnk too much ofhis phiosophy of scence at the me for when asked to send us a ist of publcaons he incuded the Soe but not the Logc ofSc D. Whie in London I read Wittgensteis Pscal Igaons n deta. Beng of a rather pedanc tu of nd I rewrote the book so that t ooked more like a ease wth a conuous argument. Part of ths ease was ansated by Anscombe nto Engish and publshed as a review by Plosl R in 1955 I also visited Poppers senar at the LSE. Poppers ideas were silar to those of Wttgenstei but they were more absact and anaemc. Ths dd not deter me but icreased my own tendences to absacon and dogmasm. At the end of my stay in London Popper invited me to become hs assstant. I declined despte the fact that I was broke and did not know where my next meal was going to come from. My decision was not based on any clearly recognz able an of thought but I guess that having no xed phosophy I preferred stumbng around in the word of deas at my own speed to beg guded by the rtual of a raonal debate. Aga I was ucky. Joseph Agass who got the ob dd not have much prvacy. Two years later Popper, Schrdger and my own bg mouth got me a job Brsto where I started lecturing on the phosophy of science (8) I had studied theae history, mathemacs, physics and asonomy; I had never studied philosophy. The prospect ofhavng to address a large audence of eager young peope did not exacty my heart with joy. One week before the lectures started I sat down and wrote eveg I knew on a pece of paper. It hardy ed a page. Agassi came up wth some excelent advice: Lk, Paul, he sad the rst line this is your rst lecture; the second lie ths s your second lecture - and so on. I tk hs advice and fared rather we except tha my lectures became a stae colecon of wisecracks from Wittgensei, Bohr Popper Dingler Eddigton and others. e in Brstol I conued my studies of the quantum theory. I found tat important pyscal princpes rested on methodoogical assumpons that are vioated whenever physcs advances: physcs gets authorty from ideas it propagaes but never obeys i actual research, methodologsts pay the roe of pubicty agents whom physcsts re to praise ther resuts but whom they woud not permt access to the enterprse itsef. That falscaonsm s not a souon became ve
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clea in discussions wih David Bohm who gave a egelian accoun of he relaon beween heoies heir evidence and hei successors The maeial of Chaper 3 is he resul of hese discussions (I rs published i in 161) 0 Kuhn's remars on he omnipresence of anomalies ed hese dcules raher nicely bu I sll ied o nd general rules ha would cover all cases and nonscienc developmens as well Two evens made me realie he fuiy of such aemps One was a discusson wih rofessor CF. von Weiscer in amburg (1 65) on he foundaons of he quanum heo Von Weiscer showed how quanum mechanics arose from concree research while I complaned on genera mehodological grounds, ha imporan aleaves had been omied The armens supporng my complain were quie good hey are he armens summaied in Chaper 3 - bu i was suddenly clear o me ha imposed wihou regard o circumsances hey were a hndrance raher han a help a person ing o sove a problem wheher in science or elsewhere t be en coplete ee and canno be resiced by any demands norms however plausibe hey may seem o he logician or he philosopher who has hough hem ou in he privacy of his sudy Norms and demands mus be checed research no by appeal o heories of raonaliy In a enghy arcle 4 I explained how Bohr had used his philosophy and how i diffes from more absrac procedures Thus rofessor von Weiscer has prime responsibiliy for my change o anarchism' hough he was no a all pleased when I old him so in 177
hi
9 hv xl h Hglm of Bohm th y Ag Mho whc r Vol of h innoa Sdir he Philoshy oS, 1970 0 or oc rmrk ( cuo t h Mo Ctr for h oohy of Scc h yr 9 h h xml of Brow moto jut ohr ro of Dum' xml (coc bw cc lw uch Kr' w gr ho uc Nwto ho But hr mot m rc h vo from Klr w r cl obbl ( c mg g th kow w of ur whl h mcrococ vto from h co lw of hmoymc r o (mug trumt ubct to h m ucuo h hg thy r uo to mur Hr w nno o whot ltv ho Cf Chr f r Kuh' book muc 190 c t xtvy wh Kuh Cf h ccout Rly to Ctcm', Boson Sdi Vo 9 3 Cf O h mrovm of h Scc h A h ob ty of h wo' Bosn Sdi Vo 3, 97 1 'O Rct Cu of Comlmty, Philoshy o S 98/9 (wo
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(9) The second event that pompted me to move awa fom aonaism and to become suspicious of all intellectual petensions was quite dieent To explain it let me stat with some geneal obseaons The wa in whch social poblems poblems of ene distibuon ecolo educaon cae fo the old and so on ae solved in Fist Wold sociees can be oughl descbed in the following wa A poblem ases Nothing is done about it People get conceed Policians boadcast this conce Expets ae caled in The develop theoes and plans based on them Powegoups with expets of thei own eect vaous modicaons unl a wateed down vesion is accepted and ealized The ole of expets in this pess has gaduall inceased We have now a situaon whee sia and pschologcal tho of human thought and acon have taken the place of this thought and acon itself Instead of asng the peope invoved in a pobemac situaon deveopes educatos tech nologists and sioogists get thei infomaon about 'what these people eall want and need fom theoecal studies caied out b thei esteemed colleagues in what the think ae the elevant eds Not live human beings but abstact models ae consulted; not the taget populaon decides but the poduces of the models ntellectuals all ove the wold take it fo ganted that thei models will be moe intelligent make bette suggesons have a bette gasp of the ealit ofhumans than these humans themselves What has this situaon got to do with me? Fom 1 958 to 990 I was a Pofesso of Philosoph at the Univesit of Califoia in Bekele M funcon was to ca out the educaonal policies of the State of Califoa which means I had to teach peope what a smal goup of white intellectuals had decided was knowledge had eve thought about this funcon and I would not have taken it ve seiousl had I been infomed I told the students what I had leaed aanged the mateial in a wa that seemed plausible and inteesng to me and that was all I did f couse I had also some ideas of m own but these ideas moved in a fail naow doman (though some ofm fiends sad even then that I was going bat) In the eas aound 964 Mecans backs Indians enteed the univesit as a esut of new educaonal policies Thee the sat patl cuous patl disdainful patl simpl confused hoping to get an educaon What an oppotunit fo a pophet in seach of a following! What an oppotunt m aonalist fends told me to conibute to the speading of eason and the mpovement of manind! What a maellous oppotunt fo a new wave of enlightenment! I felt ve dieent Fo it now dawned on me that
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the intricate arguments and the wonderful stories I had so far told to my more or less sophiscated audience might just be dreams reecons of the conceit of a small group who had succeeded n enslaving everyone else with their ideas Who was I to tell these people what and how to think? I did not know their problems though I knew they had many. I was not famliar with their interests their feelngs their fears though I knew that they were eager to lea. Were the arid sophiscaons which philosophers had managed to accumulate over the ages and which liberals had surrounded wth schmalty phrases to make them palatable the right thng to oer to people who had been robbed of their land their culture their dignity and who were now supposed rst to absorb and then to repeat the anaemc ideas of the mouthpieces of their oh so human captors? They wanted to know they wanted to lea they wanted to understand the strange world around them - dd they not desere better nourishment? Their ancestors had developed cultures of their own colourful languages harmonous vews of the relaon between people and between people and nature whose remnants are a lving cricism of the tendencies of separaon analysis selfcentredness inherent in Weste thought. These cultures have important achievements n what is today called socolo psycholo medicne they express deals of life and possblies of human exstence. Yet t were ner ne wt te respe t e except by a small number of outsiders they were ridiculed and replaced as a matter of course rst by the religion of brotherly love and then by the religion of science or else they were defused by a variety of'interetaons. Now there was much talk ofliberaon of racial equality - but what did it mean? Did it mean the equality of these tradions and the tradions of the white man? t did not Equality meant that the members of dierent races and cultures now had the wonderful chance to pacpate in the white mans manias they had the chance to participate in his science his technolo hs medicine his polics These were the thoughts that went though my head as I looked at my audience and they made me ecoil in evusion and terror from the task I was supposed to perform. Fo the taskthis now became clear to me was that of a very rened very sophiscated slavedriver. nd a slavedriver I did not want to be. Experiences such as these convinced me that intelectual procedures which approach a problem through concepts are on the wrong ack and became interested in the easons fo the emendous power ths erro has now over minds I started examnng the rise of intelectualism in ncient Greece and the causes that bought it about. I wanted to know what it is that makes peope who
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have a rich and complex culture fall for d absacons and mullate their tradions, their thought, ther language so that they can accommodate the abstracons I wanted to know how intelectuas manage to get away with murder - for it is murder, murder of mnds and cultures that is committed year in year out at schools universes educaonal missions in foreign counies. The end must be reversed thought we must start leang from those we have enslaved for they have much to oer and at any rate they have the right to live as they see t even if they are not as pushy about ther rights and their views as their Weste conquerors have always been. n 1 9645 when these ideas rst curred to me I ied to nd an ineleual soluon to my misgivings that s took it for granted that it was up to and the lkes of me to devise educaonal polces for other people. envisaged a new kind of educaon that would lve from a rich reseor of derent points of view perming the choce of adons most advantageous to the indvidual The teachers task would consst in faciltang the choice not n replacing it by some 'uth of his own Such a reseoir, I thought would have much in common with a heae of deas as imagined by Pscator and Brecht and it would lead to the development of a great variey of means of presentaon The 'objecve scienc account would be one way of presenng a case, a play another way (remember that for Astote agedy s more phlosophcal than histo because t reveals the ue of the hstorical press and not only its accdental detais) a novel sll another way. Why should knowledge be shown in the garment of academic prose and reasoning? Had not Plato obseed that written sentences in a book are but ansto stages of a comple process of growth that contains gestures jokes, asdes emoons and had he not ied to catch this press by means of the dalogue? And were there not derent forms of knowledge, some much more detaied and realsc than what arose as 'raonasm in the 7th and 6th centu in Greece? Then there was Dm had studied Dadaism aer the Second World War What attracted me to ths movement was the syle its inventors used when not engaged n Dadaisc acvies t was clear, luminous simple wthout being banal precse without being narrow; t was a syle adapted to the expresso of thought as well as of emoon I connected ths syle wth the Dadasc eercses themselves Asume you tear language apart, you live for days and weeks in a world of cacophonc sounds, mbled words, nonsensical events. Then after ths preparaon, you sit down and write: the cat is on the mat This simple sentence which we usualy uter wthout thoght ike talkng machnes (and uch of or talk is indeed rone), now seems ke the creaon of an
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ene wold: God sad et thee be ght, and thee was light Nobody n mode es has undestood the mace oflanguage and thought as wel as the Dadasts fo nobody has been able to agne et alone create a world n whch they play no ole Havng dscoveed the nature of a lving orr of a reason that s not meey mechanca, the Dadasts soon noced the deteoraon of such an order into roune They dagnosed the deteoraon ofanguage that preceded the Frst World War and created the mentalty that made t possble Aer the dagnoss ther exercses assumed another, more sinister meanng · They revealed the fghtening smaty between the language of the foremost commerca avelers n mpoance the language of philosophes, policans, theoogans and bute naculaon The pase of honour, paosm tuth, raonalty, honesty that s ou schls, pupts, pocal meengs impercib me ino inai ion no matter how much t has been wrapped nto litera language and no matter how hard ts authos to copy the style of the casscs and the authors themselves are n the end hardly dsgushable from a pack of grunng pgs Is there a way to prevent such deteoraon? I thought there was I thought that regardng all achevements as ansto escted and ponal and eve uth as eaed by our love for t and not as 'found would prevent the deteoraon of once promsng fataes and I aso thought that t as necessa to deveop a new phosophy or a new religon to gve substance to this unsystemac conjecture I now realze that these consdeaons wee just another example of ntellectualsc concet and folly It s conceted to assume that one has souons for people whose lves one does not share and whose probems one does not know It s foosh to assume that such an exercse in dstant humantaansm w have eects pleasing to the peope conceed From the ve begnning of Weste Raonasm ntellectuals have regarded themselves as teachers the world as a school and 'people as obedent pups In Pato this s ve cear The same phenomenon occurs among Chsans, Raonalsts Fascsts, Masts Maxsts dd not t to lea from those they wanted to lberate; they attacked each other about intepretaons vewponts, evdence and took t fo granted that the resulg intellectual hash ould make ne food fo the naves (Bakunn was aware of the docnaan tendences of contempora Marsm and he intended to retu al power powe ove deas ncluded to the peope medately conceed) My own vew dered from those just menoned but t was sll a view, an absact fancy I had invented and now ed to sel wthout havng shared even an ounce of the lves of
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he recevers. Ths I nw regard as nsufferale cnce. S - wha remans? Tw hngs reman I culd flw my wn adce address and nuence nly hse peple whm I hn I undersand n a persnal ass Ths ncludes sme f my frends may nclude phlsphers I have n me u wh seem e neresed n smlar prlems and wh are n upse y my style and my genera apprach. may as nclude peple frm deren culures wh are atraced, even fascnaed y Wese scence and Wese nellecua fe wh have sared parcpang n u wh sl rememer n hugh as well as n feelng he fe f he cuure hey le ehnd. My accun mgh lessen he emnal ensn hey are lale feel and mae hem see a way f unng raher han ppsng each her he varus sages f her lves Anher pssty s a change f sujec I sared my career as a suden f acng, heae prducn and sngng a he nsue fr he Mehdgca Refrman f he German Theae n he German Demcrac Repulc Ths appealed my nellecualsm and my dramac prpenses My nelecuasm ld me ha prlems had e sved y hugh My dramac prpenses made me hn ha hammng up was eter han gng hrugh an asrac argumen There s f curse n cnc here fr argumen whu llusan eads away frm he human elemens whch aec he ms asrac prlems. The ars as I see hem day are n a dman separaed frm asrac hugh u cmplemena and needed fuly reale s penal. xamnng hs funcn f he ars and tryng esalsh a mde f eseach ha untes her pwer wh ha f scence and relgn seems e a fascnang enerse and ne t whch mght deve a year ( w r hree .).
Postscript on Relativism
In a crcal noce of my book Faewe o Reon Andrew Lu uet that Feyerabend and keminded ocia crc houd eat reavim wth the didan that they normay reee for raonal im 1 h I have now done, in ee Dialo of noledge Z where ay that relam ive an exceent account of the reaon beeen domac world-ew but i only a rt tep toward an undertandin of ve adon, and in Bond Reon E on he Phih ofPaul Fabend where I wrte that relavim i a much of a chimaera a abolum [the dea that there e an objecve uth], it cantankerou 3 In the ame book call my earer advice to keep hand o adon an idiy'. 4 In both cae I rae objecon aant relam indicate why chaned my mnd and menon ome of the remainin dcule. drew Lu add that my commient to relavim a a eneral theo (or princped outlook) i conderaby le than tota and [that I] can plauby be read a arun that the oube wth adional verion of relavim that they are pitched at t hh a eve of abacon5 h i certainly ue of what I ay in Faewe but ancipaon (which I noce ony now, a a reult of Lu' comment) occur already in Scice in a Fee Socie here I dnuh between parcpant and exteal obeer of adion, decrbe objecvim a an iluon created by the pecial poion of the former and ummarize my arument in a ere of thee, al of them printed in tac hei i read: radon are neither ood nor bad, they mply are he i A adon aume derable or Ca JofP Vl 2 1 199 p 6 receved 1989 2 rd 1 99 1 pp 1 5 1 . (S sed 1989/90) 3 rect 1991 p 51 5 (S sed 1989) 4 d p 5 5 J ct 6 d 1978 p sec 2 pp 27 repted wtt ce Cpter 1 7 te cd ed AgatM d 1988 d wt dded cmmet Cpter 17 225 e pret ed
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ndesiable popeties onl when compaed with some tadion, ie. onl when viewed b paticipants who see the wold in tems of thei own vales. And so on his sonds like Potagoas, and I sa so, in thesis iii. Howeve, then descibe theses v and vi) how tadions inteact. I discss two possibilies, a gided exchange and an open exchange. A gided exchange adopts 'a wellspecied tadion and accept[ s] onl those esponses that coespond to its standads. If one pat has not et become a pacipant . . he will be badgeed, pesaded, 'edcated nl he does - and then the exchange begins. 'A rol db conne, 'is a special case of a gided exchange. In the case of an open exchange 'the paticipants get immesed into each othes was of thinking, feeling, peceiving to sch an extent that thei ideas, pecepons, woldviews ma be enel changed the become dieent people pacipang in a new and diffeent tadion An open exchange espects the pae whethe he is an individal o an ene clte, while a aonal exchange pomises espect onl within the famewok of a aonal debate. An open exchange has no oganon thogh t ma invent one thee is no logic thogh new foms of logic ma emege in its cose In sm, an open exchange is pat of an as et nspecied and nspeciable pacce hese comments impl, st, that tadions ae ael well dened open exchanges ae going on all the me) and, secondl, that thei inteactions cannot be ndestood in geneal tems Keeping tadions alive the face of exteal inlences we act an onl patl conscios wa. We can descibe eslts afte the have ced, we cannot incopoate them into a lasng theoecal stcte sch as elavism) In othe wods, thee cannot be an o of knowledge except as pat of a special and fai stable · tadion), thee can at most be a athe incomplete) so of the was in which knowledge has changed in the past In m next book I shall discss some episodes of sch a histo. In the meanme have stated sing the tem 'elavism again, bt in a new sense. In the second edion of the pesent book I explained this sense b saing that 'cientists [and, fo that matte, al membes of elavel nifom cltes ae sclptos of ealit7 hat sonds like the song pogamme of the sociolo of science except that sclptos ae escted b the popees of the mateal the se imila individals, pofessional gops, cltes can ceate a wide vaiet of sondings, o 'ealies - bt not all 7 c 70 f al he me dealed accu Realsm ad he cy f Kwledge,Joul ofPhlohy, 989
270
AGANS MTHOD
appaches succeed: sme cutues thve thes nge f a whe and then decay Even an bjecve entepse ke scence whch appaently eveas Natue As She s n Hesef nteenes emnates enages pduces and cdes the esuts n a seveey standaded way - but agan thee s n guaantee that the esuts w cngea nt a uned wd hus a we apprh when expemenng ntefeng n ess systemac ways smpy ng as pat f a wedeveped cutue s hw what suunds us rpon t u acns (thughts bseans etc); w not arh ths suounn ths Cutue and Natue ( Beng t use a me genea tem) ae aways entanged n a fashn that can be exped nly by enteng nt futhe and even me cmpcated entanglements Nw cnsdeng that scensts use deent and en cntadc t methds f eseach (I descbe sme f them n Chapte 9 f the pesent edn) that mst f these methds ae successfu and that numeus nnscenc ways f fe nt ny suved but ptected and enched the nhabtants we have t cncude that Beng espnds deently an pot t many deent appaches Beng s ke a pesn wh shws a fendy face t a fendly vst becmes ang at an ang gestue emans unmved by a be wthut gvng any hnt as t the pncpes that mae Hm (He? t? hem?) act the way they d n the deent ccumstances What we nd when lng expemenng dng eseach s theefe nt a sngle scena caled the wl beng ealty but a vaety f espnses each f them cnstung a specal (and nt aways weldened) ealty f thse wh have caed t fth hs s eavsm because the type f eaty encunteed depends n the appach taken Hweve t des fm the phlsphca dtne by admng falue: nt eve appach succeeds In my epy t ccs8 I called ths fm f eavsm csmlgca elavsm n an acle pubshed n 9 I spke f an ntgca easm, n Natue as a Wk f At 0 I agued that the wd f mde scence (and nt nly the descpn f ths wd) s an atwk cnsucted by geneans f asan/scensts whe n Realsm and the Hstcty f Knwedge I ndcated hw such vews ae eated t the deas f Nels Bh In the last ace I als menned 8 In Gl Munva (d), d Ro, DhtBtLd, 199, 570 9 N 8, JaAp 12 0 Co Kowldg Vl , N 3, 1993 p it, t 7 av
P O S TS R I P T ON R A T IV I S M
7
that ontoogcal elasm mght be smla to Thomas Kuhns moe ecent philosophy Hang befoe me a copy of Kuhns Robet and Mauine Rothschld Disnguished Lectue of 19 Novembe 1991 can no descbe the simlaes and the deences n geate detal We both oppose the song pogamme n the socolo of science As a matte of fact oud say, exacty as Kuhn does, that 'the caims of the song pogamme ae 'absud: an exampe of deconsucon gone mad aso agee that t s not enough to undemine the authoty of the sciences by hstoical aguments: hy should the authoty of hstoy be geate than that of say, physcs? A e can sho hstoically is that a appea to scenc authoty ns into conadcons That undemines any such appea; hoeve, t does not tel us ho science should no be ntepeted o used (Such quesons, ould say, have to be anseed by the inteested paes themselves, accoding to thei standads, concepons cutual commients) Kuhn says that 'the dcules that have seemed to undemne the authoity of science should not be smply seen as obseed facts about its pacce. Rathe they ae necessay chaactescs of any developmental o evoluonay pocess But ho do e no that science is an evouonay pocess athe than a stac ay of ndng moe facts and bette las? Eithe fom 'obseed facts about its pacce o fom inteetaons that ae imposed fom the outsde. n the st case e ae bac at the situaon Kuhn ants to ovecome hle the second case means that scence is being ncopoated into a ide (cutua) context a context that values developments and is ntepeted accodngly (the pocedue menoned n paentheses above). t seems that is hat Kuhn eally ants, e. he ants to setle the queson plosophically not by appealng to facts ould agee if ne that fo him this is one ay among many and not the ony possibe pocedue Summaizng his agument Kuhn maes thee asseons. 'Fst the Achimedian patfom outside hstoy, outside ofme and space is gone beyond ecall es and no t is gone as a suctue that can be descbed and yet shon to be independent ofany descpon. t is not gone as an unnon bacgound of ou estence hich affects us but in a ay hich foeve hides its essence No is Achimedianism gone as a possibe appoach t ould be the poically coect appoach in a theocacy fo example. Secondly, Kuhn says that in the absence of an Achiedian plaom 'compaave evaluaon is al thee is. That is of couse ue and ally so. Thidy, he chalenges the adional noon ofuth
272
AGAINST MTHO
a cospondnc to aity I am not suggsng, t m mphasiz,
that th s a aty which scnc fais to gt at My point s, ath, that no sns can b mad of th noon of a ality a t has odinary funcond n th philosophy of scnc. H I agr with th povso that mo mtaphyscal noons of aty (such a thos poposd by Psudo Dionysius Aopagita hav not yt bn disposd of Lt m pat that th cultus that ca forth a ctain aity and ths as thmslvs a nv w dnd Cutus chang, thy intact with oth cultus and th ndntnss rsulng thrfrom is rctd n thr words Ths s what maks intrcutura undrstandng and scinc chang possb: potn ay v cutur is al cuturs W can of cous imagn a world whr culturs ar w dnd and sctly spaatd and whr scnc ts hav nally bn naid down. such a word ony mracs o rvlaon could rform our cosmolo.
Index
Alber eon Batsta 4 713 105 anarcism 49 anyting goes 14 3 1 epistemological 9 metodolo and 9-10 1 -13 196 naive 47-9 3 1 poical 113 Anamander 95 185 Anscombe Elizabet 59-60 antropoo 1 890 197 case study of quantum ibe 191 anyting gs anarcism appearances 195n 97-8 03 natural interetaons argumen emoons and 117 incomensurability and ISO value of 15-1764 anarcism incomensurability Aristotle Copecan teo and 7-3 79 cosmolo 44 091 135 141 33-4 dynamics and motion 34n 11 135 intuive view ofumans 4 knowledge & percepon 89 A, Halon 4 45 art arcaic style and percepon 169186
perspecve 185n 1 87 199-01 0315 (Gaileo 39-40n 80 astronomy ancient 36n 1 35 136 Ptolemaic 135-6 mediaeva 135 136 Copecus Galileo Newton telescope auxilia sciences 5 1- 1 10 113-14 Bacon Francis 3n 11-13n 117-18 Baow saac 456 Bom David 6 Bor Nies 15n 3- 40 Boltzmann udwig 46 Bae Tyco 55 135 14 Brect Bertolt 9 59 Brownian moon (Dr Robert Brown 7-8 8n 6n Bno Giordano 17 Burbidge C. 41 Caap Rudolp 1 19 Cambers Robert 40 cildren developmenof 15-17 perceptual stages 150 67-8 Calmers Alan 76n Cina medicine 37 Curc & Crisanity 48 acceps proven science 133 attudes 5-6 131 Gaileo and 14 1 5-34
23
74
NDX
clashing wih acceped heories s counerinducon cassical mechancs 47, 7-3, 113 csicaons 1646 common sense Copecanism and 103-4, 1 10, 11-13 s o naural inereaons obseaon communcaon guided vs open 45-6, 9 concep archaiparaacc 76, 177-85, 19903, 8- 9 changes of 155 nea naure of 61, 05 olrianism of 165-9, 19907 so ideas counerinducon naural nereaons consisen condion 4-7 8-30 50,34-5 Copecus, Nichol accepance of 96, 45-6 dees evidence 1 7 35, 3, 5160,6 eecofRevoluon 35-6 Galieos defence of 7, 77 mehodolo 38 symbol ofprogress 11 heo deached from eerence 103-4, 1 10, 1 1-13 s o Gailei, Galileo cosmolo 38, 4 , 4 archaic 1 846, 1 88, 198-9, 39 Arisoe and 1091, 135, 41 culural percepons and 1 75-6 ie 33-4 need for reevaluaon 1 135, 0 so asonomy conceps counernducon Copecan heo and 51-3, 7780 l for research 3, 61-4
crisis, heo of 145-6 crica raonalism 147, 15 18 s o Popper, Karl raonalism culure 3-4 Dadaism 65-6 Descaes, Ren 54 DuonMhod 49n diaecc 18 Diogenes ofSnope 6 discove 1- 47 1 1 17 s o science heories ofscience Duhem, Piee 4 educaon 63-5 ience , 1 1-1 , 161- Ehrenhaf, Felix 8, 47 Einsein Albe Brownian moon and 8 mehodolo 11 1, 4-3n, 138n, 163, 39 heo 18 , 107 4 elecynamics 47 empircism 18, 0 9, 7, 10910, 1 1718, 47 Arisoe and 10910 auonomypnciple 9 episemological illusion 73 episemolo 9, 1 1, 1 , 36 illusions 73 38, 156 prejudices 197 essenalism s paracc aggregaes evaluaon ofheores s meholo EvansPrchard, E.E. 18 evens, eecs on ience 117, 138 eerence s naural nereaons obseaon eermens s empcsm facs facs auonomy principle 7 colecon & diove 77, 145 selecon & suppression 1, 51, 55
INDX
theorecal nature 1 1 , 22, 390, 63 s ao countenducon; empicism; natual nteetaons fa-talessmyths & faiy-tales faithsreligon f&sicaon 23, 45 54 22 science suated by 50I 54 s ao ccal raonalism; Popper, Karl Favaro Antonio 27 Feigl, Herbe 478, 212 Feller, Margaet 242 245 Frank, Philipp 257 foalism slogc freedom 7, 229 Galilei, Galileo 78 390, 49, 54, 23 TAss 30n, 80 boat arment 657 counterinducon and 7780 dynamics & mechanics 25 moonand 99 propaganda 65, 703, 6n, 105, 8 Nu 82 telescope and opcs 815 890 902 ter arment 50, 68 7, 07 i&s of 2534 sao Church; Copeicus, Ncholas GiedyminJ. 923 Gottschedj ohann 219 goveent and ience 63 gammars language & liniscs Geeks, ancient 265 a & cultue shape vews 1 74, 778, 9202 asonomy & cosmolo 36n 87, 97202 s ao Aristotle; Plato; Paenides
75
Hanson, NR 2 1 2 Hanfmann, GM 1 75 Heracltus 95, 2034 heec wn 35, 4 Hesse, Ma 3 histo conceptu& changes 72, 20 educaon ofience 112 evaluaon oftheoes 2, 32, 337, 078, 22 events of, eects onience 7 mate&ism 259 methodolo 1 0, 5 3 478 adons 225, 228 world vews 2435 Holltscher, W&ter 2579 Home 17782, 203, 204 humanitaranism 34 1 62, 228 Hubble EP 239 Hume, Davd 50 hypnagogc h&lucinaon 1 82n hypotheses hoc 15, 44 49 75 conadcto 5, 203 s ao ideas; theoes idealism 2223 2301 ideas and acon 7, 49, 26 232 comparison to other ideas 2 saoconcepts; hypotheses ideolo 718, 62 84 Il (Homer) 7782, 203 24 ncommensurabilty 150, 1 65, 90 author's aval at thess 2 1 3 2623 suspension of unive&s 2057 nconsistency sconsstency theo; fac indivdu&, development of 2 sao freedom; humanitarianism nducve logcslogc insuments 17, 1 0 232 s ao teleope intuion 1 , ISO aonalsm 58 204
276
IDE
Japan 250 juscaon 147-9 Kant, mmanuel 5 , 55-6, 56n Kaufmann, W Kepler,Johann 24, 94n, 242 t 45, 82, 88, 9n, 98n, 91 polyopia of 88n Kierkegaard, Sren 17, 54 knowledge 21 America o 2 1 6 enumeraon vs undeanding 1846 seeo episemolo Kraf Circle 255 Kropotkn, Peer . 13 Kuhn, Thomas 3 , 2 1 1, 212-1 3 Lagela,Julius Caesar 84 Lakaos, mre 34n, 58n, 162-3 language & linguiscs classicaon 165 deerioraon of 266 eecof 1 64, 172, 199 invenon ofscienc 1 1, 18, 63-4, 71, 150, 193-4 obseaon 57, 59, 64, 71, 1 12 philosophy 206-7, 220 relavity principe 2089 anslang ideas & conceps 189, 206-7, 209-10 law & order ee un metholo eaing see educaon Lessing, otthold 2 120 Lenin, adimir . 9n, 10 liber ee freedom linguiscseelanguage & inguiscs Loewy, Emmanuel 17� logic anthropolo and 194 conadicon of 15n, 1946 falsicaon 5�1 inducve 1 5, 152 mis speculaon 1 1, 106, 192, 95 Loren, Hendrik 46-7
Lore, Konrad 1 3 l n, 245 Luria, SE 2389, 242 Lysenko, Tromm D 37, 60 McMulin, Ean 689n, 9 n Maestlin, Michael 35, 142-4 Ma, Karl, & Marsm 1 07n mathemacs 50, 136, 195 Mell,ames Clerk 46, 241 Medawar, Peer 13 l n medicine 36-8, 249 Melanchthon, Phiip 135 menta sets 199, 202 Me,Johann T. 243-4 metaphysics, science as 76, 78, 14, 12 , 154, 245 methodolo as the acvity of science 239-42 anarchisc 10, 12-1 3, 9, 231 counerinducon 2�3, 5 -3, 61-4 crical raonalism 147, 151-8 empiricism 18, 20, 29, 72, 10 10, 1 178 falsicaon 23, 5�1, 145, 155 law & order 13, 19 ogic and I, 1 1, 15n, 06, 152, 19�7, 221 paence needed with saus quo 1115 pluralisc 2�3, 28, 32,33 , 08 preconcepons in -2, 5�3 problemsof 187-97 raona 12-13, 17, 147 scienc progress and 119, 157-8 ee o hypotheses raonalism science theories of science Mill,John Suart 1 19, 1 94 describes accepance of theories 230,31 Lb 34n,38 minody probem 64, 123-4 model theo ee theories of science morality 16, 253 see o humanitarianism
INX
mn alle and 550 65-76 121 peeual 27-8 28n relav f 69-70n 7 myth & fatales 2 36n 53 naural nteretans 22 59 65 74 so bsean nauralsm 222-3 23 -2 NeumannJhn vn 49n Neurath Ott 49 Newtn saac 35 68 acceptance fthe 25 pcs Nuerpepes 89-90 bjecvty 27 22 -2 225 228 s o facts mena sets bsean asnmcal vs teesal 85 892 Cpecus mves ence m 03-5 0 2 hstrca changes 52 anage 57 59 64 7 1 2 naural nteretans 22 59 60-5 74 sens 57 234 theres and 39 49 5 s o methl percepn telescpe Ossq (Hmer) 78 ntl 155 75 ti (Kepler) 45 82 88 9n 98n99- pcs 24 37-8 242 naural bsean 87 telescpe and 82 898 5 Oresme Ncle 248 paratacc agegates 69-75 77-86 99-202 Paendes 434 62 2 pacpant vs bseer 25-2 passn (Kerkegardan) 7
77
percepn 95 109 1 14 1 52 farchac culures 169-75 cncepual frewrk and 68 757 s o naural teretans bsean pepecve peeual mn 27-8 28n 262n Per Cmmander atthew 250 pepecve 85n 87 99-2 202-3 21 5 242 Plosgns (Wttgensten) 26 phlsphy fence 4 9 48 15 1 54 97 pgmac 2 7-18 227-8 standards 233 so Bacn Francs Thmas theres fence physcs 47 73 1 3 s o mn pcs PagetJean 67 Plat 7 1 5 245 pluralsm 23 29 32 33 Plutarch 96 98 25n Ppper Sr Karl R 34n 42n 47 158 authr's acquantance wth 260- Prandtl 2 prejudce recgnn 223 58 presupsns 58 s o facts: therecal naure prpaganda 17 4 alle and 65 73 76n 5 8 Prtagras 226 Pseud Dnysus Aprpagta 248 psychl s mena se percepn Ptlemy (Caudus Ptemaeus) 35 137 pubc pacpan n ence 2 2 Pythagreans 35 quanum the 18 case sudy f Qune Wlard van an 22
28
IND
ronlism 2, 62 64, 1 14 16�1 246, 265 cric 147, 15 18 fsicon 23, 5�, 145, 154 ofReson 1213 nture of 15 , 1 151 6 225 objecvity 217, 2212, 2256, 228 reconsucon 191 vsscience 2115 stndrds ithn 230 relism 1412 144 nive 5960 7�1 relity ssumpons 1412 relvity Enstein's 1819,489 Glileo's 734, 1 1 8 relgon 1 1 53 137 218 coestence ith science so Church & Chisnity reserch s fcts; empiricism; methodolo Scrobosco,Johnnes 136 Schchild soluon 48 science nrchsm 910, 1213, 14 19 uli 5 12 1 10, 1 1314 chuvinismin 24 37 coherence vs subdivision 138 144 consevism in 1 1 06 192 culturl inuence 34 discove & success 24 47 106 1 16 148 educon nd 2, 1 112 1612 moneynd 37 stndrds 1 12, 1613 24 2278 231 2323 2342 orld vies 2435 s o hsto; methodolo phiosophy of science; theories ofscience senses s u nturl inteetons obseon
Ss Nucus (Glileo) 812 specuon s hypotheses des; metphysics StlnJoseph 257 stte s goveent sttus quo 1 115 TStur ofSctc Rolutos uhn) 31 , 21213 Siss cheese theo 262
technoo 263 telescope ceesl dicules 891 Gleo nd 815 120 senses nd 93102 1034 teestril success 834 so opcs tests s empiricism methodolo Thles 185n theolo s Church & Chrisnty; religon theories ofscience cceptnce of 17 8 3�2, 63, 77 chngng ofpercepons 2�3 523 1 234 consisten condions 27 2830, 50 2345 historic vie 12, 32 337 incommensurbility 150 165 9020572113 juscon 1479 s metphysics 76, 78 14 121 54 numeric disgreement 3942 qulitve disgreement 39 4250 phosophcl 14 9 3 148, 15 1 154 196 21213 sepron from obseon 47, 1518 teinolo 1 1 18, 634 71 150 2023 orld vies 2435 s o concepts; hsto; hypotheses; metholo; science
