Scientific Perspectivism

Many people assume that the claims of scientists are objective truths. Buthistorians sociologists and philosophers of science have long argued thatscientific cl... » 

Many people assume that the claims of scientists are objective truths. Buthistorians sociologists and philosophers of science have long argued thatscientific claims reflect the particular historical cultural and socialcontext in which those claims were made. The nature of scientific knowledge isnot absolute because it is influenced by the practice and perspective of humanagents. Scientific Perspectivism argues that the acts of observing andtheorizing are both perspectival and this nature makes scientific knowledgecontingent as Thomas Kuhn theorized forty years ago.Using the example of color vision in humans to illustrate how his theory ofperspectivism works Ronald N. Giere argues that colors do not actually existin objects rather color is the result of an interaction between aspects ofthe world and the human visual system. Giere extends this argument into ageneral interpretation of human perception and more controversially toscientific observation conjecturing that the output of scientific instrumentsis perspectival. Furthermore complex scientific principlessuch as Maxwellsequations describing the behavior of both the electric and magnetic fieldsmake no claims about the world but models based on those principles can beused to make claims about specific aspects of the world.Offering a solution to the most contentious debate in the philosophy of scienceover the past thirty years Scientific Perspectivism will be of interest toanyone involved in the study of science. «