Progress and Its Problems: Towards a Theory of Scientific Growth

Laudan's project in this book is to construct a normative model of scientific progress which is responsible to the historical facts, but does not lead to relativism. He argues against many contrary views by pointing to historical counterexamples. He constructs a model in which science is a highly rational enterprise, yet its rationality does not depend on the truthfulness of it's claims, but on its progressive ability to solve the problems it is confronted with. Thus his picture of science is a pragmatic one. As well as his positive model, the book has many excellent criticisms of reletivism and the 'strong program' in the sociology of knowledge. Laudan's biggest influences seem to me to be thinkers like Kuhn, Lakatos, and Feyerabend, but he is probably more traditionally 'rationalistic', and more historically knowledgable than any of them. His writing is very systematic, straight forward, and easy to read. He does not try to impress you by overwhelming you.