Dilemmas in Truth and Science

Though it may not appear so at first glance, the chapters that follow are all of a piece. Each is part of a larger endeavor to evaluate the role and veracity of truth in the realm of science. During the 1990s, when I composed the majority of these projects, postmodernists appeared to gaining the upper hand in the Science Wars. To put it bluntly, postmodernists had declared that science was evil and truth was dead. Although certain elements of the postmodern critique clearly had merit, the broader implications for truth and science were more problematic. In the chapters that follow, I develop a critical analysis of the philosophy and practice of science. While I acknowledge the ticklish problems that coercive power often exercises over knowledge, ultimately, I arrive at a very different conclusion than postmodernists about the value of truth and the future of science.