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(1997) Science and the quest for reality, Dordrecht, Springer.
A Frenchman who arrives in London finds a great shift in scientific opinion that makes the mind weary. He left the world full; he finds it empty. At Paris you see the universe composed of tiny vortices of subtle matter; in London we see nothing of the kind…With the Cartesians, all change is explained by collisions between bodies, which we don’t understand very well; with the Newtonians it is done by an attraction which is even more obscure. In Paris you fancy the earth’s shape like a round melon; at London it is flattened on the two sides.2
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-25249-7_6
Full citation:
Laudan, L. (1997)., Explaining the success of science: beyond epistemic realism and relativism, in A. Tauber (ed.), Science and the quest for reality, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 137-161.
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