Bunge, Mario. 1979. Causality and Modern Science. New York: Dover.
A discussion of causality in the light of modern science. Defends the thesis that strict causation occurs nowhere, but that certain scientific law statements can be seen to have a causal range. Also defends the importance of discovering social mechanisms, including causal ones.
Bunge, Mario. 1996. Finding Philosophy in Social Science. New Haven: Yale University Press.
This book discusses the philosophical content of scientific research as it pertains specifically to social science. It also defends scientific research against various forms of ideological criticisms.
Bunge, Mario. 1998. Social Science Under Debate: A Philosophical Perspective. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
This book is the dual to the above one; it examines at a large number of social sciences and sociotechnologies from a broad but not superficial philosophical perspective. Bunge in this book and the seminar that studied it is the one who first emphasized to Keith the vitally important distinction between normative and positive economics.
Cole, Stephen. 1996. Making Science: Between Nature and Society. Boston: Harvard University Press.
Cole's book is a sociological investigation of how science is practiced. Unlike many contemporary sociologists who flirt with relativism and other (in Keith's view) disastrous viewpoints, Cole's approach is sensible and attempts to test the fashionable theses about the "contamination of science." To a large extent he confirms the viewpoint that although social factors occasionally play roles in selecting problems (as is not surprising) they do not play significant roles in the content of scientific findings. Science is thus remarkably free from ideological contamination.
Douglas, Keith. 2000. "The Scientist-Technologist Distinction, Or Who Gets To Play With Toys?" Unpublished paper for UBC course PHIL 536A.
Douglas, Keith. 2003. "Aesthetics in HCI" Unpublished paper for CMU course 80-990.
These two papers written by one of your authors illustrates some of his viewpoints about technology and values in greater detail. The first deals with ethical values, the second with aesthetic ones. They are available at Keith's web page here.
Haack, Susan. 2003. Defending Science-Within Reason: Between Scientism and Cynicism. Amherst: Prometheus Books.
A book which discusses science's relation to such fields as rhetoric and the law, as well as exploring its relationship to common sense. Haack claims that science is in a certain way common sense writ large and more explicit. Keith ultimately disagrees with the degree to which the latter thesis is defended, but the book is admirable regardless. It makes a good counterpoint to Bunge's Finding Philosophy in Social Science (above).
Kitcher, Philip. 2001. Science, Truth, and Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kitcher's book discusses the role of science in democracy specifically. Keith disagrees with the thesis that scientific research should be under direct democratic control. His amazon.com review explains more beyond what he discusses in our current debate. Kitcher, however, strikes a very interesting balance and argues well for his case. The book, however, is perhaps slightly too academic for casual consumption.
MacIver, Robert. 1942. Social Causation. Boston: Ginn and Company.
In the light of Bunge's 1979 book (above) this book ought to be called "Social Determination", but that is a methodological quibble. This interesting classic also defends the study of social mechanisms. MacIver was a sociologist, illustrating how it is not just philosophers who have thought about some of the methodological issues that we are discussing.
Nanda, Meera. 1998. "The Epistemic Charity of Social Constructivist Critics of Science and Why the Third World Should Refuse the Offer", in Koertge, Noretta (ed.). 1998. A House Built on Sand: Exposing Postmodernist Myths About Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nanda's articles (this one and others) are very interesting reading for those who hold the fashionable view that science is "epistemically imperialist" or out-right imperialist, colonial, or similar viewpoints.
Gyekye, Kwame. 1995. "Technology and Culture in a Developing Country". in Fellows, Roger. (ed.) 1995 Philosophy and Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Another decent piece on the relationship between science, technology and development. Gyekye doesn't make use of my craft-technology distinction in so many words, but does stress what amounts to the same thing. Mentions crucially that those in developing countries are intellectually capable of science and technology but are not often used to the sustained sort of non-practical inquiry that would lead to a development of science and technology.Stenger, Victor. 1995. The Unconscious Quantum: Metaphysics in Modern Physics and Cosmology. Amherst: Prometheus Books.
Vic Stenger is a long time e-colleague of Keith's and has written extensively on philosophical matters pertaining to physics. This particular book concerns the misuse of quantum mechanics by "new age" authors such as Deepak Chopra and the like. I have included it as a good first introduction to what QM is genuinely about.
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