Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2016

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Oral

Symbol M (Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary) » M-ZZ Others

[M-ZZ32] Geoscience Studies: historical, philosophical and STS studies

Sun. May 22, 2016 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM 301B (3F)

Convener:*Michiko Yajima(College of Humanity and Science, Nihon University), Shigeyuki Aoki(Center for Cultural Research and Studies, University of Aizu), Toshihiro Yamada(Chiba Prefectural Funabashi High School), Shigeo Yoshida(Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, Kyushu University), Chair:Michiko Yajima(College of Humanity and Science, Nihon University), Toshihiro Yamada(Chiba Prefectural Funabashi High School)

12:00 PM - 12:15 PM

[MZZ32-06] Whewell’s anti-pluralism of worlds

*Shigeyuki Aoki1 (1.Center for Cultural Research and Studies, University of Aizu)

Keywords:History of Science, Philosophy of Science

Is the earth we know the only world in which the intelligent being lives, or, are there plural worlds other than our earth? This has long been questioned since antiquity and is still now being debated (Crowe 1999; 2008). Throughout this long debate, William Whewell (1794-1866)’s Of the Plurality of Worlds (1853) and A Dialogue on the Plurality of Worlds (1854) in response to many of his critics are noteworthy since they first sparked the hot debates among his contemporaries. This talk focuses on his scientific and philosophical arguments in line with his apologetic anti-pluralism and describes the characteristics of the plural-world debate in the 19th England when the concept “scientist” was recently coined.