[Marxism] Studying philosophy at the New School

[Haines Brown]

> > They are possibly slowly moving toward a new unified view of
> > science (at least that is the opinion of perhaps the most highly
> > respected text on the philosophy of science).
> 
> Which text is this?

Richard Boyd, Philip Gasper, and J. D. Trout, The Philosohy of
Science. Cambridge: MIT, 1991. This is considered the best text for
classes in the philosophy of science. Possibly something better has
since come out, but I've not heard of it. 

The point I made is discussed in the editor's Introduction. "But
recent developments in the philosophy of science and related areas of
philosophy, in the philosophies of the various special sciences, have
progressed to a point where a new "post-positivist" censensus has
emerged" (p. xi), etc. This is a convergence of critical empiricism,
pragmatism and scientific realism, but later the editors qualify this
a bit by saying these are moving toward a consensus.

My own view is that these three converging trends are not there
yet, for they still presume the mind-body (and some other binaries)
of the bourgeois tradition. I try to transcend the categorical binaries
by representing them as merely aspects of process (what I call "process
realism"). 

I can't help but mention a little book that came very recently into my
hands, Samir Okasha, Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction
(Oxford: OUP, 2002). This is an excellent little intro for the more
casual user than the book cited above.

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       Haines Brown, KB1GRM