Building on Sellars: Concept Formation and Scientific Realism [Book Review]
Metascience 17 (2):257-259 (2008)
Abstract
Harold Brown has written an ambitious work, which traces the formation
of concepts in individuals and cultures, examines case studies
of concepts in calculus, mathematics, biology and related fields,
summarises important philosophical works on the theory of concepts,
and seeks to reconcile scientific realism with conceptual
change. Brown considers himself a scientific realist but concedes
that this very label is one that depends on a long history of concepts
that came before, and may indeed be superseded as conceptual
change continues. Yet, concepts are not strictly relative to
their contexts. ‘‘The usual claim is that truth is relative – period;
and this claim assumes a non-relativized truth-concept’’ (p. 309).
Crucial to his goal of developing a theory of concepts is how
Brown reconciles conceptual change with objectivity.
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