Economic Approaches to Understanding Scientific Norms
نویسنده
چکیده
A theme of much work taking an “economic approach” to the study of science is the interaction between the norms of individual scientists and those of society at large. Though drawing from the same suite of formal methods, proponents of the economic approach offer what are in substantive terms profoundly different explanations of various aspects of the structure of science. The differences are illustrated by comparing Strevens’ explanation of the scientific reward system (the “priority rule”) with Max Albert’s explanation of the prevalence of “high methodological standards” in science. Some objections to the economic approach as a whole are then briefly considered. Falling under the rubric of “economic approaches” to the study of science are a wide range of projects employing different methods to study diverse phenomena. The purpose of this paper is to sketch an enterprise that unifies much, though not all, philosophical work on this theme, namely, the investigation of the interface between social norms and individual interests in science; to examine what I take to be a major divergence of explanatory styles within the enterprise, using Albert’s paper in this issue of Episteme and Strevens (2003) as exemplars of contrasting approaches; and briefly to defend the enterprise as a whole against some important objections. I will not attempt a literature review, but readers new to the area might browse, in addition to the work discussed in this paper, Sarkar (1983), Gold-
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تاریخ انتشار 2011