Overview

How can science be protected, by whom and at what level? If science is valued positively as the incubator of the most successful solutions to representational problems of reality as well as the basis of the most effective interventions in the natural and social world, then its constitutional foundations must be protected. This book develops a specific normative outlook on science by introducing the idea of a 'Constitution of Science'. Scientific activities are special kinds of epistemic problem-solving activities unfolding in an institutional context. The scientific enterprise is a social process unfolding within an intricate institutional framework that structures the daily activities of scientists and shapes their outcomes. Those institutions of science which are of the highest generality make up the 'Constitution of Science' and are of fundamental importance for channelling the scientific process effectively.

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9781009509176

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Reviews

In a time when disinformative challenges to the results of science are widespread, Chrys Mantzavinos offers this careful, wide-ranging, ambitious, multi-pronged investigation into the many necessary and perhaps sufficient conditions to foster healthy scientific inquiry. Normativity emerges as a key to the solution in a context where problem-solving is central, social interactions are essential activities, and diverse values must be respected. Free expression, critical discussion, open access are principles that allow discovery, justification and applications to take place in this innovative philosophical account.' James Alt, Frank G. Thomson Professor of Government Emeritus, Harvard University 'A work of high intellectual ambition that offers an account of what makes science science from philosophical, social and economic perspectives. Mantzavinos never forgets that science and the societies in which it has thrived have been diverse and constantly evolving. Yet he offers an account of science - its constitution - that aims to capture its core values, both moral and epistemic.' Lorraine Daston, Director Emerita, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science 'Chrysostomos Mantzavinos has offered us a bold new perspective on the scientific enterprise. He views science as a polity with an unwritten constitution, and shows how this idea can cast new light on familiar philosophical questions. After decades during which the social character of science has been proposed and debated, philosophy informed by social theory finally steps in to take the notion seriously. This book should inspire a new genre of fertile discussions.' Philip Kitcher, John Dewey Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Columbia University

Author Information

C. Mantzavinos is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Athens and an elected member of the Academia Europaea and the Académie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences. He has taught at Freiburg, Stanford and Witten/Herdecke, was a senior fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn and held visiting appointments at Harvard, Princeton and the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris. He is the author of Wettbewersbstheorie (1994), Individuals, Institutions and Markets (Cambridge University Press, 2001), Naturalistic Hermeneutics (Cambridge University Press, 2005), Explanatory Pluralism (Cambridge University Press, 2016), A Dialogue on Explanation (2018), A Dialogue on Institutions (2021) and the editor of Philosophy of the Social Sciences (Cambridge University Press, 2009).

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