James Robert Brown
Personal Information
Description
James Robert Brown FRSC (born 1949) is a Canadian philosopher of science. He is an emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto. In the philosophy of mathematics, he has advocated mathematical Platonism, visual reasoning, and in the philosophy of science he has defended scientific realism mostly against anti-realist views associated with social constructivism. He has also argued for the socialization of medical research (especially pharmaceutical research). He is largely known for his work on thought experiments. -Wikipedia
Books
Smoke and mirrors
The rational and the social
A new series in philosophy of science, mathematics and technology. Books in the series will cover the physical, biological, cognitive and social sciences, and reflect the growing popular and academic interest in the ethical and metaphysical implications of modern scientific discoveries.
Contemporary debates in philosophy of science
An accessible introduction to the major topics in contemporary philosophy of science, including empiricism, confirmation, realism, laws, causation, explanation and the philosophies of physics, biology, psychology, and the social sciences.
Who Rules in Science?
"What if something as seemingly academic as the so-called science wars were to determine how we live?" "This book reveals how little we've understood about the ongoing pitched battles between the sciences and the humanities - and how much may be at stake. James Robert Brown's starting point is C.P. Snow's famous book, Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution, which set the terms for the current debates. But that book did much more than identify two new, opposing cultures, Brown contends: It also claimed that scientists are better qualified than nonscientists to solve political and social problems. In short, the true significance of Snow's treatise was its focus on the question of who should rule - a question that remains vexing, pressing, and politically explosive today." "In Who Rules in Science? Brown takes us through the various engagements in the science wars - from the infamous "Sokal affair" to angry confrontations over the nature of evidence, the possibility of objectivity, and the methods of science - to show how the contested terrain may be scientific, but the prize is political: Whoever wins the science wars will have an unprecedented influence on how we are governed."--Jacket.