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The British journal for the philosophy of science, 2008-03, Vol.59 (1), p.73-88
Ort / Verlag
Oxford: Oxford University Press
Erscheinungsjahr
2008
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Oxford Journals 2020 Humanities
Beschreibungen/Notizen
The one world, one science argument (so named by Rescher) is advanced by Carl Sagan and others to support the thesis that we will be able to learn to converse with intelligent extraterrestrials if and when we encounter them. The prima facie obstacle to extraterrestrial communication is that the aliens’ culture and geography are bound to be so different from ours that we would find it extremely difficult, if not practically impossible, to find a common topic on which we can both converse. Sagan's rebuttal is that we will share mathematics and the laws of physics, these being the same for all intelligent beings regardless of local cultural and geographical variations. I show that this argument fails even if its contentious assumptions about science and the world are granted—that is to say, it fails on uncontentious grounds. 1OWOS 2OWOS and Social Constructivism 3OWOS and Conceptual Relativism 4OWOS and the Selection Problem 5The Fundamental Laws Solution 6The Mathematics Solution 7The Radio Solution 8The Common Conditions Solution 9The Intractability of the Selection Problem 10The Superfluity of OWOS