Topical Perspective and the Rhetorical Grounds of Practical Reason in Arguments about Science

Abstract

Only four decades ago, scholars across the disciplines assumed that science is unique among human activities in its rigorous conformity both to empirical criteria for evidential appraisal and to formal rules for testing logical inference. Science, at its best, sought answers to questions of inquiry with recourse to foundations which, purportedly, are impervious to the inquirer’s own interests, values, and preferences. Accordingly, the discourses of science, with such firm foundations in nature and in logic, are the best vehicle for bringing forward claims to knowledge that approximated, as far as humanly possible, that which is true.