Now in its third edition, Narration and Knowledge is a classic work exploring the nature of historical knowledge and its reliance on narrative. Analytical philosopher Arthur C. Danto introduces the concept of "narrative sentences," in which an event is described with reference to later events (for example, "the Thirty Years' War began in 1618") and discusses why such sentences cannot be understood until the later event happens (no one could have said in 1618 that "the Thirty Years' War began today"). Danto compares narrative and scientific explanation and explores the legitimacy of historical laws. He also argues that history is an autonomous and humanist discipline incapable of being reduced to scientific descriptions. Lydia Goehr's new introduction illustrates Danto's main arguments by questioning her very role, first, as an introducer of a book that has not yet been read by readers and, second, as an interpreter of a book written forty years ago. Frank Ankersmit's conclusion revisits the initial impact of the publication of Narration and Knowledge and considers its enduring legacy.

Thomas S. Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was a watershed event when it was published in 1962, upending the previous understanding of science as a slow, logical accumulation of facts and introducing, with the concept of the “paradigm shift,” social and psychological considerations into the heart of the scientific process. More than fifty years after its publication, Kuhn’s work continues to influence thinkers in a wide range of fields, including scientists, historians, and sociologists. It is clear that The Structure of Scientific Revolutions itself marks no less of a paradigm shift than those it describes. In Kuhn’s “Structure of Scientific Revolutions” at Fifty, leading social scientists and philosophers explore the origins of Kuhn’s masterwork and its legacy fifty years on. These essays exhume important historical context for Kuhn’s work, critically analyzing its foundations in twentieth-century science, politics, and Kuhn’s own intellectual biography: his experiences as a physics graduate student, his close relationship with psychologists before and after the publication of Structure, and the Cold War framework of terms such as “world view” and “paradigm.”

本书是20世纪学术史上最有影响的著作之一，是科学史与科学哲学研究的学者们不可不读的基本文献。它引导了科学哲学界的一场认识论的大变革，成为科学哲学史上一道重要的分水岭。其影响不仅在于科学史、科学哲学、科学社会学等相关领域，而且延伸到社会学、文化人类学、文学史、艺术史、政治 史、宗教史等人文和社会科学领域，甚至在社会公众领域也产生了深刻的影响。书中提出的“范式转换”一语如今已成为我们耳熟能详的一个重要词汇。本书自1962年面世以来就引起强烈反响，掀起了一股世界性的研究热潮，其影响至今不衰。本版是芝加哥大学出版社为庆祝本书问世五十周年而作，新加入加拿大哲学家伊安·哈金教授所写的导读。“自然科学的发展除了按常规科学一点一滴地积累之外，还必然要出现“科学革命”。科学革命不仅仅使科学的面貌焕然一新，而且还会引起人们世界观的变革。” - 托马斯·库恩

The present anthology, edited by Marcel Herbst, is partially based on a conference, held in 2009, to reflect on the legacy of Ben-David, and contains a selection of substantially revised papers, plus four contributions specifically written for this volume. The book focuses on three major lines of Ben-David’s research, namely “Center and Periphery” (Part I), “Role and Ethos” (Part II), and “Organization and Growth” (Part III). In addition, comprehensive introductory (“Prologue”) and concluding chapters  (“Epilogue”, Part IV) by Marcel Herbst are provided. The volume addresses the following disciplines: higher education, history and sociology of science, philosophy of science, history of medicine, public administration, policy studies, Jewish studies, and economics. The anthology is one of two new publications on Joseph Ben-David after the special Minerva edition Vol. 25, Numbers 1–2, March 1987,  and Gad Freudenthal’s collection of Ben-David’s writings [1991]. The text can be used in graduate studies, it addresses higher education professionals or public officials, and serves as a gateway to researchers in the field of higher education, science studies, or policy sciences.

Book Description Historical records show that there was no real concept of probability in Europe before the mid-seventeenth century, although the use of dice and other randomizing objects was commonplace. Ian Hacking presents a philosophical critique of early ideas about probability, induction, and statistical inference and the growth of this new family of ideas in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. The contemporary debates center around figures such as Pascal, Leibniz, and Jacques Bernoulli. Hacking invokes a wider intellectual framework involving the growth of science, economics, and the theology of the period. He argues that the transformations that made it possible for probability concepts to emerge have constrained all subsequent development of probability theory and determine the space within which philosophical debate on the subject is still conducted. First published in 1975, this edition includes a new introduction that contextualizes his book in light of new work and philosophical trends.

Originally published in German in 1935, this monograph anticipated solutions to problems of scientific progress, the truth of scientific fact and the role of error in science now associated with the work of Thomas Kuhn and others. Arguing that every scientific concept and theory--including his own--is culturally conditioned, Fleck was appreciably ahead of his time. And as Kuhn observes in his foreword, "Though much has occurred since its publication, it remains a brilliant and largely unexploited resource." "To many scientists just as to many historians and philosophers of science facts are things that simply are the case: they are discovered through properly passive observation of natural reality. To such views Fleck replies that facts are invented, not discovered. Moreover, the appearance of scientific facts as discovered things is itself a social construction, a "made" thing. A work of transparent brilliance, one of the most significant contributions toward a thoroughly sociological account of scientific knowledge."--Steven Shapin, "Science"

潛心四十餘載，末代武士的關鍵一戰 一九七〇年代，葉啟政教授回台任教，學術關懷轉向理論性思考，但同時也保留了主流的以實證主義為導向的「經驗實徵」研究這條「深層」軸線。《從因果到機制》即是他對此深層軸線沉思四十年的積累成果。在這部深具開創性的作品中，葉教授徹底反思了「確立因果關係」這個科學探討的核心課題。 在葉教授的思路裡，一招一式都在表達一個基本立場：尊重各種研究策略，但絕無法供奉某種特定的研究策略是追求「真理」的唯一途徑。固然我們經常選擇某種「靜態」的特定狀態來作為貫連因果關係的「變項」，但這樣的「靜態」模樣只是用來勾勒整個現象的起始概念。事實上，起點充其量只是提供我們如此漫遊的意義，重點更在於尋找概念的分岔點。這正是葉教授不斷檢討實證主義主導下「經驗實徵」研究策略所具有的特性及其侷限的基本緣由。 批判經驗實徵，既破且立的全新視野 葉教授的前一部作品《實證的迷思》致力於破除以實證主義為主導的「典範迷思」，而在《從因果到機制》中，葉教授更上層樓，深入探討「因果」與「機制」此二論點如何架設、分殊、轉化與圓成的問題。 在過去，學者們力主採取「變項」這類概念來表徵現象的因果關係。這樣的表達方式卻有著基本缺陷，其中最為根本的莫過於，從表徵現象認定的因果關係可能是虛假的，經常無法有效處理「混淆因子」問題。針對此一難題，最典型的化解方法即是善用「機制」概念來補救。「機制」提供一套解釋項和被解釋項之間，相互連串且接續的因果聯繫。在此同時，機制卻也涉及到具因果鏈性質的「中介變項」問題。更貼切地來說，這乃關乎「機制」作為一種中介過程的問題了。 葉教授進一步以分析社會學和批判實在論作為分析對象，檢討他們各就不同立場如何處理「機制」這一概念。葉教授認識到，機制乃是一種具引信促發作用的解釋性思維理路。「機制」的內涵理法必然是具有一定的穩定性，但隨時空條件的更移卻可能轉變。這意味著，人作為具有能動性的行動者，在當下時空的思考與決定，對事態的發展，是具有決定性的關鍵因素。 最後，葉教授認為，我們可以採行Max Weber的「理念型」概念來處理「機制」作為因果權（能）力的表現。基本上，以機制為基礎的因果解釋，乃是以具選擇親近性的方式來描繪因果過程，而非窮盡所有的可能情況。其所論述的因果，其實是人們透過經驗所形塑出的一種心靈圖像，因此具有區域性與選擇性，始終受特定社會條件隨時制約著，易言之，世間並無一成不變的因果「真理」。