In The empirical stance, Bas van Fraassen argues for a reconceptualization of empiricism, and a rejection of its traditional rival, speculative metaphysics, as part of a larger and provocative study in epistemology. Central to his account is the notion of voluntarism in epistemology, and a concomitant understanding of the nature of rationality. In this paper I give a critical assessment of thes...

Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Cerrahpasa Medical School, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey. Hasan Yazici, MD, Professor of Rheumatology (retired); Gulen Hatemi, MD, Associate Professor of Rheumatology. Please address correspondence to: Prof. Hasan Yazici, Ic Hastaliklari Anabilim Dali, Cerrahpasa Tip Fakultesi, Aksaray, Istanbul, Turkey. E-mail: hyazici@attgloba...

Justice Louis Brandeis wrote in 1932. "It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single ... State may. if its citizens choose. serve as a laboratory .... "1 Brandeis was writing here in the context of statutory change. Experiments. however. mean little unless meaningful data are collected which establish the results or effects brought about by changes in the law or in any ot...