Scientific Objectivity and Its Contexts

Historical and Philosophical Background.- The Characterisation of Objectivity.- First Corollaries in the Philosophy of Science.- The Ontological Commitment of Science.- Scientific Realism.- The Contexts of Objectivity.- Corollaries in the Philosophy of Science.- Scientific Truth Revisited.- The Context of Making Science.- Science and Metaphysics.- Appendix.- References.- Indexes.

Evandro Agazzi completed his studies in Philosophy at the Catholic University of Milan and in Physics at the State University of the same city. He became full professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Genoa in 1970 and also held the chair of Philosophical Anthropology, Philosophy of Nature and Philosophy of Science at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland (1979-1998) and a chair in Philosophy in the Department of Humanities of the Autonomous Metropolitan University/Campus of Cuajimalpa of Mexico City (2009-2013). He taught as a visiting professor at the Universities of Düsseldorf, Berne, Pittsburgh, Stanford and Geneva, as well as at other universities for shorter times. At present he is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Genoa and full Professor in the Department of Bioethics of the Universidad Panamericana of Mexico City. Professor Agazzi is President of the International Academy of Philosophy of Science (Brussels). He was also President, and is now Honorary President, of the International Federation of the Philosophical Societies (FISP), the International Institute of Philosophy (Paris). He has received many honors. He has been elected as a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2012) and the Mexican Academy of Sciences (2012). His publications include more than 70 books, of which he is the author and/or editor and almost 1000 papers and articles, including contributions to books, anthologies, encyclopedias and journals. He is the editor of Epistemologia, an Italian journal for the philosophy of science and is a consulting editor for several international journals.

"The rich and wide-ranging book offers a critical dialogue with many contemporary philosophers, debates, and viewpoints. It includes ten chapters and one appendix on philosophical topics associated with the concept of scientific objectivity as the key to the scientific understanding of reality. ... the book recommends itself because of its great clarity, while also deservig a careful reading because of the complexity of its structure and the organic unity of its parts." (Marco Buzzoni, Journal for General Philosophy of Science, Vol. 47, 2016)