Reliable Knowledge An Exploration of the Grounds for Belief in Science [Paperback]

Reliable Knowledge offers a valuably clear account and a radically challenging investigation of the credibility of scientific knowledge.A challenging investigation of the reliability of scientific knowledge results in a revealing exploration of worldly perception--and surprising connections between scientific methods and everyday understanding.A challenging investigation of the reliability of scientific knowledge results in a revealing exploration of worldly perception--and surprising connections between scientific methods and everyday understanding.Why believe in the findings of science? John Ziman argues that scientific knowledge is not uniformly reliable, but rather like a map representing a country we cannot visit. He shows how science has many elements, including alongside its experiments and formulae the language and logic, patterns and preconceptions, facts and fantasies used to illustrate and express its findings. These elements are variously combined by scientists in their explanations of the material world as it lies outside our everyday experience. John Ziman's book offers at once a valuably clear account and a radically challenging investigation of the credibility of scientific knowledge, searching widely across a range of disciplines for evidence about the perceptions, paradigms and analogies on which all our understanding depends.Preface; 1. Grounds for an inquiry; 2. Unambiguous communication; 3. Common observation; 4. World maps and pictures; 5. The stuff of reality; 6. The world of science; 7. Social knowledge; Index.'He is one of the cleverest and most urbane liberal scientists writing about science today.' The Guardian