Group rationality in scientific research

The overview

The plan of the book

Group to individual, or vice vera?

The Williams problem and utopias

Group rationality : a unique problem

Not an evolution problem

Not a game theory problem

Ramsey and group rationality

The problem explored : Sen's way

Consistency, ordering, and rationality

Other notions of rationality and scientific welfare

The sen-problems of group rationality

The problem defined

The skeptical view

The democratic councils

No covenant, a tale

Multiply, multiply, multiply

Positive arguments

Negative arguments

The route to the goal

The subjectivist view I

Individuals, group, and goals

Divisions and discrepancies

A society of ruthless egoists

Theory choice

Problems and a paradox

The subjectivist view II

Values and individuals

Group transitions and risk distribution

History, values, and representative groups

Negotiations in the scientists' original position

The city of man?

The objectivist view

Two objectivist problems

Toward the best available method

The best available method

Is the single method sufficient?

A new problem of demarcation

Illustration : the herbalist tradition

The scare of Saint-Simon

Putnam, individual rationality, and Peirce's puzzle

Democracy and group rationality

Moral images, scientific images

Method, historical knowledge, and reason

Peirce's puzzle

Ultimately, relativism?

What lies at Bedrock

The nine problems

The problem, the common aim of science, and the basic structure

The council, reasoning, and allegiance

The universal law of rationality, the worth of science and utopias.