Effective Dialectical Analysis

James Duffy, Alexandra Gillis, Robert Henman, Terrance Quinn, William Zanardi

The common description of science as ‘an organized body of knowledge’ possesses more than merely metaphorical significance. Like any self-organizing body—be it a tadpole, a giraffe fetus, an animal species, or humanity in its space-time solidarity—science develops. It develops through cumulative discoveries, especially significant discoveries, which often enough involve “a series of emergent leaps from the logic of one position to the logic of the next.” The displacement of one logic by another raises the question of method. Is there a logic of leaping?