On the very idea of a science forming faculty

Collins, John (2002) On the very idea of a science forming faculty. Dialectica, 56 (2). pp. 125-151. ISSN 1746-8361

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Abstract

It has been speculated, by Chomsky and others, that our capacity for scientific understanding is not only enabled but also limited by a biologically endowed science forming faculty (SFF). I look at two sorts of consideration for the SFF thesis and find both wanting. Firstly, it has been claimed that a problem-mystery distinction militates for the SFF thesis. I suggest that the distinction can be coherently drawn for cases, but that the purported‘evidence’for even a fairly lose general demarcation of problems and mysteries is not best explained by a SFF. Secondly, I consider in detail a range of cognitive considerations for the SFF thesis and contend that it is at best moot whether science can be so construed as to make it feasible that it is a faculty competence.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Philosophy
Depositing User:	EPrints Services
Date Deposited:	01 Oct 2010 13:56
Last Modified:	17 Jan 2024 01:24
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/8865
DOI:	10.1111/j.1746-8361.2002.tb00235.x

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