Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T22:37:24.695Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Discussion: Are Methodological Rules Hypothetical Imperatives?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

David B. Resnik
David B. Resnik*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Wyoming
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This discussion adjudicates a dispute between Larry Laudan and Gerald Doppelt over the nature of methodological rules. Laudan holds that all methodological rules are hypothetical imperatives, while Doppelt argues that a subset of those rules, basic methodological standards, are not hypothetical imperatives. I argue that neither writer offers a satisfactory account of methodological rules and that their reliance on the hypothetical/nonhypothetical distinction does not advance our understanding of methodological rules. I propose that we dispense with this dubious distinction and develop an alternative account of scientific norms.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , September 1992 , pp. 498 - 507
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

I thank Ed Sherline, Jim Martin, Michael Resnik and an anonymous reviewer for Philosophy of Science for helpful discussion and comments.

‡

Send reprint requests to the author, Department of Philosophy, Box 3392, University Station, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA.

References

Doppelt, G. (1990), “The Naturalist Conception of Methodological Standards in Science: A Critique”, Philosophy of Science 57: 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feyerabend, P. (1975), Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge. London: New Left Books.Google Scholar
Hacking, I. (1983), Representing and Intervening: Introductory Topics in the Philosophy of Natural Science. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, T., Jr, . (1973), “The Hypothetical Imperative”, The Philosophical Review 82: 429–450.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, T. S. (1977), The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laudan, L. (1977), Progress and Its Problems: Toward a Theory of Scientific Growth. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Laudan, L. (1984), Sciences and Values: The Aims of Science and Their Role in Scientific Debate. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Laudan, L. (1987), “Progress or Rationality? The Prospects for Normative Naturalism”, American Philosophical Quarterly 24: 19–31.Google Scholar
Laudan, L. (1990), “Normative Naturalism”, Philosophy of Science 57: 44–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (1953), Philosophical Investigations. Translated by G. E. M. Anscombe. New York: MacMillan.Google Scholar