Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

200595

From physics to sociology

Giuliano Di Bernardo

pp. 121-133

Abstract

Evandro Agazzi's original proposal of characterizing science through only two requirements, objectivity and rigour, amounts to advocating a concept of science that aims at being general but at the same time admitting a distinction between science and non-science and, in addition, capable of convincingly applying to different sciences. This result he has attained by elaborating an "analogical" concept of science, in the sense that the basic requirements of objectivity and rigour are characterized and satisfied not according to a unique model, but in articulated specific ways from science to science. Therefore, reductionism is the opposite of scientificity, contrary to what has been maintained by several scholars. The social sciences are the domain in which Agazzi has concretely put to test this claim: they do not satisfy many features of the paradigmatic "exact sciences' but, instead of saying that they are not sciences, or that they are sciences but totally at variance with the exact sciences, he has discussed how they have a specific way of being sciences. What Agazzi has discussed in general terms, is analyzed in some details in the present contribution, where physics, biology and sociology are considered in their common elements and in the specificity of their single features, that entail epistemological as well as ontological differences.

Publication details

Published in:

Alai Mario, Buzzoni Marco, Tarozzi Gino (2015) Science between truth and ethical responsibility: Evandro Agazzi in the contemporary scientific and philosophical debate. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 121-133

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-16369-7_9

Full citation:

Di Bernardo Giuliano (2015) „From physics to sociology“, In: M. Alai, M. Buzzoni & G. Tarozzi (eds.), Science between truth and ethical responsibility, Dordrecht, Springer, 121–133.