Invitation to Generalized Empirical Method

In Philosophy and Science

Bernard Lonergan identified the need and possibility of what he called "generalized empirical method" in science and philosophy. Implementation will be a future community achievement. The book enters into details of a selection of examples in the sciences and philosophy of science. These are provided not to engage in, or blend the present aim with traditional philosophical debate, but as points of entry to help reveal the possibility and need of balanced empirical method. Taking words of Lonergan: "(Q)uestions of method are practical. So my purpose in these (chapters) is not to demonstrate what is necessary. It is not to forecast what is probable. It is ... to invite you to share in the exploration of a proposal" (Bernard Lonergan, A Third Collection (1985), 114). The main examples are drawn from biochemistry and biology, although heuristics envisioned will include all sciences.

Contents:

• Preface
• Introduction
• Space and Time
• A Foundations Lift from the Adult Columbidae
• Growing to Flight Mastery: The Whole Storeyed Story
• Biological Entities
• The Concrete Intelligibility of Space and Time
• Epilogue: What is Science?

Readership: Students and professionals in philosophy of science, and scholars in Lonergan Studies.
Key Features:

• As Melchin notes of Vertin's work, the reader of the present book is invited to "cast in personal terms, ..., personal observations ... on operations ... for the evidential base for ... arguments and analyses" (Melchin, in Liptay and Liptay (2007), 185). The context and discussion of the present book is, though, modern science and modern philosophy of science
• By including self-attention, one begins to discern problems in present methods, but also potential new lines of development
• Examples help toward revealing advantages of a balanced empirical method for science and philosophy of science