Larry Laudan Quotes

• The displacement of the idea that facts and evidence matter by the idea that everything boils down to subjective interests and perspectives is - second only to American political campaigns - the most prominent and pernicious manifestation of anti-intellectualism in our time.

  Larry Laudan

  Ideas, Perspective, Political

  Larry Laudan (2012). “Science and Relativism: Some Key Controversies in the Philosophy of Science”, p.10, University of Chicago Press

  51 Copy quote

• The rationale for accepting or rejecting any theory is thus fundamentally based on the idea of problem-solving progress. If one research tradition has solved more important problems than its rivals, then accepting that tradition is rational precisely to the degree that we are aiming to "progress," i.e., to maximize the scope f solved problems. In other words, the choice of one tradition over its rivals is a progressive (and thus a rational) choice precisely to the extent that the chosen tradition is a better problem solver than its rivals.

  Larry Laudan

  Science, Ideas, Choices

  Larry Laudan (1978). “Progress and Its Problems: Towards a Theory of Scientific Growth”, p.109, Univ of California Press

  12 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Imre Lakatos

Paul Feyerabend

Thomas Kuhn

Bas van Fraassen

Charles Sanders Peirce

David Bloor

John Dewey

Carl Gustav Hempel