Social Epistemology

"One of the freshest books that I have read in a long time. It will shake you up. You will not always agree with Fuller, but he will force you to rethink some of your pet conceptions about how science works." — Isis

This is the book that launched the research program of social epistemology, which has fueled imaginations and provoked debates across many disciplines around the world. Its opening question remains as pressing as ever: How should knowledge production be organized? The second edition contains a substantial new introduction, in which Steve Fuller reflects on social epistemology's place in the history of analytic and continental epistemology and discusses the inspiration he has drawn from a wide variety of fields in the humanities and social sciences. It also includes a spirited attack on alternative philosophical groundings for social epistemology and a detailed response to the standard criticism that social epistemology has received from realist philosophers and natural scientists during the "Science Wars." In its new edition, the book remains a provocative contribution to the debate on the production, dissemination, and interpretation of knowledge in the sciences.

Steve Fuller is Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick. Trained in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science, he is the founding editor of the journal, Social Epistemology, and has promoted social epistemology as an interdisciplinary project in seven books, including the controversial Thomas Kuhn: A Philosophical History for Our Times (2000) and most recently Knowledge Management Foundations (2001). His works have been published in nine languages. Social Epistemology was his first book.