Scientific understanding : philosophical perspectives /

Historically, understanding has been dismissed as having no role in the philosophy of science, being both subjective and highly fallible, while science is about objective explanation. The writings included in this volume make a series of counterarguments around the idea that intelligibility is founded on understanding, intelligibility being the application of tacit knowledge that makes science possible. As such, science is not about dismissing the subjective, but rather creating tools and explanations that bridge individual subjectivities to create consensus. A key point is that understanding means many different things in the literature, causing confusion as to its contextual nature. One piece even proposes as a solution a scientific approach to studying understanding. Some of the articles get too caught up in talking about models and interpretive structures rather than understanding, but overall, the authors stay on theme and actively respond to each other's ideas and approaches. This is an excellent work, which clearly argues that science, a product of human activity, cannot exist apart and separately from the humans that perform science, but rather must function in the interstices between them to create a pluralism of understanding. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through researchers and faculty. P. L. Kantor University at Albany