Is science without philosophy like speech without grammar, or like books
without reviewers? The Philosophy of Science, edited by David Papineau (Oxford
University Press, £30, ISBN 0 19 875164 8), is by, for and largely about
philosophers. So, go native. The authors should get out more in the evenings,
and meet some connectionists. Is there “a reality which is not affected by our
beliefs about it”? Not that we can tell, is the majority verdict: so, the
realists lose on points.
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