On What We Know We Don't Know

The nine essays in this book, collected for the first time, are based on the presumption that scientific research represents the most reasonable and responsible way of satisfying our curiosity about questions whose answers we know we don't know. In this pursuit, science repeatedly struggles against limitations on our ability to conceive, formulate, connect, and asses questions and answers. These limitations must be understood if we want to appreciate fully what scientific inspiration and creative intelligence add to mere observations.

In this book, Sylvain Bromberger defends the controversial claim that a proper account of the nature of explanation, theory, theoretical concepts, the subject matter of linguistics, and scientific assessment must explore the consequences of the fact that questions play an essential role in shaping how we investigate the world. He argues that these consequences include the existence of constraints on rationality that represent profound but unavoidable aspects of human predicament.

Sylvain Bromberger is professor of philosophy in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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