The Disorder of Things Metaphysical Foundations of the Disunity of Science

Dupre's book is original, lucid and confident, without being eccentric, polemical or arrogant. It deserves close attention...Dupre insists that there is no general scientific method, process, or attitude...He pins down the notion of the unity of science as a form of scientism appropriate only to a Utopia or to totalitarianism. He notes that 'paradoxically, with the disunity of science comes a kind of unity of knowledge.' That is why, to my mind, this is just the kind of philosophical teaching that is needed to close the gap between the two cultures. -- John Ziman Nature The thesis of 'disorder' has revolutionary implications for the practice of science...[This book] should be read by every student of the subject as an antidote to current philosophical correctness, and it should indeed suggest to professionals that many of the fashionable empires of analytic philosophy as well as philosophy of science are not well-clothed. -- Mary Hesse International Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science