University of Florida, FL 32611-2250, USA.
J Exp Anal Behav. 2009 May;91(3):391-402. doi: 10.1901/jeab.2009.91-391.
An increasingly popular view among philosophers of science is that of science as action-as the collective activity of scientists working in socially-coordinated communities. Scientists are seen not as dispassionate pursuers of Truth, but as active participants in a social enterprise, and science is viewed on a continuum with other human activities. When taken to an extreme, the science-as-social-process view can be taken to imply that science is no different from any other human activity, and therefore can make no privileged claims about its knowledge of the world. Such extreme views are normally contrasted with equally extreme views of classical science, as uncovering Universal Truth. In Science Without Laws and Scientific Perspectivism, Giere outlines an approach to understanding science that finds a middle ground between these extremes. He acknowledges that science occurs in a social and historical context, and that scientific models are constructions designed and created to serve human ends. At the same time, however, scientific models correspond to parts of the world in ways that can legitimately be termed objective. Giere's position, perspectival realism, shares important common ground with Skinner's writings on science, some of which are explored in this review. Perhaps most fundamentally, Giere shares with Skinner the view that science itself is amenable to scientific inquiry: scientific principles can and should be brought to bear on the process of science. The two approaches offer different but complementary perspectives on the nature of science, both of which are needed in a comprehensive understanding of science.
在科学哲学家当中，有一种观点正变得日益流行，即把科学视为一种行动——科学家在社会协调一致的共同体中开展的集体活动。科学家不再被视为冷静追求真理的人，而是积极参与社会事业的人，科学与其他人类活动一道被视为一个连续体。如果将这种科学即社会过程的观点推向极端，就可能会认为科学与任何其他人类活动并无不同，因此也就不能对其关于世界的知识提出任何特殊的要求。这种极端观点通常与经典科学的同样极端观点——揭示普遍真理——形成对比。在《没有规律的科学和科学的透视主义》一书中，吉耶勾勒出一种理解科学的方法，这种方法在这两种极端观点之间找到了一个中间立场。他承认科学是在社会和历史背景中发生的，科学模型是为了满足人类目的而设计和创造的建构。然而，与此同时，科学模型以可以被恰当地称为客观的方式与世界的某些部分相对应。吉耶的立场，透视现实主义，与斯金纳关于科学的著作有重要的共同点，其中一些共同点在这篇评论中进行了探讨。也许最重要的是，吉耶与斯金纳一样认为科学本身是可以进行科学探究的：可以而且应该将科学原则应用于科学过程。这两种方法提供了对科学本质的不同但互补的视角，对于全面理解科学都非常必要。
