Inquiry Dynamics

by Rescher,Nicholas

• ISBN13: 9780765800077
• ISBN10: 0765800071
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781351327022
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-09-30
• Publisher: Routledge
• More Book Details

Summary

Epistemology is more than the theory of knowledge. Its range of concern includes not only knowledge proper but also rational belief, probability, plausibility, evidentiation, and not least, erotetics, the business of raising and resolving questions. Aristotle indicated that human inquiry is grounded in wonder; when matters are so out of the ordinary we puzzle about the reason why and seek for an explanation. With increasing sophistication, the ordinary as well as the extraordinary excites the intellect, so that questions gain an increasing prominence within epistemology. Inquiry Dynamics focuses on the phenomena and theory of rational inquiry, focusing on its concern for questions and their management.An introductory chapter lays the groundwork of the book's deliberations, followed by chapter 2, explaining the basic concepts involved in the abstract logic of questions and answers and sets out the generic fundamentals of the domain. Chapters 3 and 4 expound the theoretical principles that characterize the,field of question epistemology in general, clarifying the fundamental themes and theses of the subject. Chapters 5 through 9 then explore the landscape of question epistemology within science. Rescher seeks to show that there are limits -- restrictions of basic principle -- to our ability to resolve scientific questions. The concluding chapter argues in particular that the grand goal of an ultimate theory, one resolving all explanatory questions, has to be approached with great caution. Throughout Rescher emphasizes that a question-oriented approach to the process of inquiry serves to highlight the inherent limitations of the cognitive project.Rescher's question-oriented treatmentof epistemology proceeds in the tradition of Kant and stands in decided contrast to the dominant knowledge-oriented approach originating with Descartes. He demonstrates that a concern for the issue of plausible question res

Author Biography

Nicholas Rescher is University Professor of Philosophy and vice chairman of the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction	1	(8)
Preliminaries	1	(1)
Questions and Knowledge	2	(1)
Questions and Answers	3	(2)
Issues of Taxonomy	5	(4)
Rudiments of Question Epistemology	9	(18)
Presuppositions	9	(5)
Formalism	14	(3)
Issues Regarding the Legitimacy of Questions: Question Resolution	17	(2)
Hypothetical Questions	19	(2)
The Knowledge-Relativity of Questions	21	(2)
Depths of Ignorance	23	(4)
Fallibilism and the Pursuit of Truth	27	(14)
Skepticism and Risk	27	(5)
Fallibilism and Its Implications	32	(2)
The Pursuit of Truth	34	(7)
Question Dynamics	41	(16)
Question Exfoliation	41	(4)
Kant's Principle	45	(5)
Illegitimate Questions	50	(7)
Questions and Scientific Progress	57	(10)
The Problem of Progress	57	(5)
Quality Poses Problems	62	(2)
Applicative Efficacy as the Key to Progress	64	(3)
On Learned Ignorance	67	(16)
Introduction	67	(2)
The Vagaries of Vagueness	69	(2)
Cognitive Risk	71	(3)
Fuller Information Does not Assure Safety	74	(2)
Ignorance can Have Its Compensations	76	(3)
The Cognitive Life Offers No Guarantees: It is a Matter of Calculated Risk	79	(1)
The Rationale of Rationality	80	(3)
Against Cognitive Relativism	83	(18)
What's Wrong with Relativism	83	(2)
What's Right with Objectivism	85	(3)
Objectivity and the Circumstantial Universality of Reason	88	(4)
Objectivity and the Complexity of the First Person Plural	92	(2)
Other Cultures	94	(2)
Abandoning Objectivity is Pragmatically Self-Defeating	96	(1)
The Charge of Circularity	97	(4)
Conclusion	101	(4)
Summary of Notation and Symbols	105	(2)
Name Index	107