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This is the first book to focus on science as a social institution based on a comprehensive analysis of the thought of Foucault and Habermas. A key aspect of this book is its standpoint which critiques science, whilst simultaneously interrogating philosophical critique which must in a certain sense accommodate science, and its effect on modernity.
List of contents
CHAPTER 1. Modernity's Nagging Question
Science and Society / The Aim and Contents of this Book / Philosophy and Its Contexts / Habermas and Foucault: Lives and Motivations / Modernity Science and Philosophy
CHAPTER 2. Habermas' Critique of Positivism
Habermas' Response to Positivism / Knowledge and Human Interests / Habermas' Theoretical Partitions
CHAPTER 3. Science, Modernity and Communicative Action
Habermas Linguistic Turn / Lifeworld, System and the Rationalisation of Society / The Diagnosis of Modernity / Insights and Aporias / Reinterpreting Habermas
CHAPTER 4. Science and Deliberative Democracy
Between Facts and Norms / Philosophy and Science / The Future of Human Nature. / Free Will and Determinism / Concluding Thoughts
CHAPTER 5. Foucault's Archaeology of Scientific Knowledge
Foucault's Radicalisation of Critique / Madness / Archaeology and the History of Science / Order and The Sciences / Concluding Thoughts
CHAPTER 6. Science and Power
From Archaeology to Genealogy / The Emergence and Dissemination of Modern / Power/Knowledge / The Constitution of The Subject / The Natural Sciences / The Normalisation of Society / Bio-Power and Governmentality / Normative Confusions
CHAPTER 7. Science and the Genealogy of the Subject
Later Foucault's Broader Framework / Ethics, Aesthetics and Spirituality / The Genealogy of The Subject / Philosophy and Science after Kant
CHAPTER 8. Science, Philosophy and Modernity
The Reconcilability of Habermas and Foucault / Reflexivity and its Modern Radicalisation / Discovery and Self-Transformation / Normative Foundations and Confusions. / Wrapping up the debate / Concluding Reflections
About the author
John McIntyre is a research affiliate at the University of Sydney. He has tutored and lectured at University of Sydney and Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy. His research is focussed on science, technology and their relationship to society and draws on philosophical thought from across both the analytic and continental philosophical traditions. Prior to commencing formal studies in philosophy, McIntyre worked as an environmental planner, which provides his work with an acute awareness of the complex interface between society's democratic and legal institutions and scientific knowledge.
