Philosophy of Science as First Philosophy: The Liberal Polemics of Ernest Nagel

Abstract

This chapter explores Nagel's polemics. It shows these have a two-fold character: (i) to defend liberal civilization against all kinds of enemies. And (ii) to defend what he calls 'contextual naturalism.' And the chapter shows that (i-ii) reinforce each other and undermine alternative political and philosophical programs. The chapter's argument responds to an influential argument by George Reisch that Nagel's professional stance represents a kind of disciplinary retreat from politics. In order to respond to Reisch the relationship between Nagel's philosophy of science and his politics is explored and this chapter shows how both are anchored in what Nagel once called his 'contextual naturalism'-a metaphysics that resists imposing the unity of the world and treats all entities as embedded in a wider network of entities. Part of the argument traces out how Nagel's views on responsible speech and professionalism reflect a distinct understanding of the political role of philosophers of science.

The Rise of Logical Empiricist Philosophy of Science and the Fate of Speculative Philosophy of Science

“…We agree withSchliesser (2022) that Nagel also thinks that the philosophy of science aims to promote liberal values. As we read Nagel, his view is that the philosopher of science's use of logical analysis itself promotes liberal values, but the philosopher of science does not directly engage with such values.…”

“…3 Nevertheless, Nagel's work fits well into the field of non-immigrant, 3 Nagel, to be sure, had a metaphysics that superficially resembles Cohen's, one that acknowledges that a "manifest plurality and variety of things, of their qualities and their American philosophy of science. Like his teacher Cohen, Nagel identifies philosophy with philosophy of science (Nagel 1954, 298;Schliesser 2022). Moreover, the issues and positions Nagel focuses on throughout his career were the critical issues we have already noted were found in Cohen's 1931 book and, as we will now see, in the work of other speculative philosophers of science.…”

[Retracted] On the Ways of Political Philosophy Innovation and Popularization under the Network Environment

“…Since the reform and opening up, an important change in many areas of social life is the rapid development and wide application of network technology [ 1 ]. Since the beginning of the development of network technology, it has affected all aspects of people's lives, not only profoundly changing the way of modern information dissemination, but also making earth-shaking changes in people's way of life and communication, becoming an indispensable part of modern people's life.…”