Rethinking Stylistic Pluralism

Abstract:

One of the “pluralisms” that proliferated in Anglophone philosophy of science during the second half of the 20th century involves conceiving of the history of science as a history of “scientific styles” (e.g. Granger 1968; Hacking 1982, 1992; Crombie 1994). This paper aims to examine how a “stylistic pluralism” allows us to recognize the advances associated with the pluralist turn without falling into the relativism and constructivism it is often taken to imply.

Matteo Vagelli is Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at both Ca' Foscari University of Venice and Harvard University.