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Philosophy of Science and Public Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Patric Suppes*
Affiliation:
Stanford University

Extract

Many persons would defend a sharp comparison of public policy and public science with judgments uniformly unfavorable to policy. Science is pure, policy is not. Science is essentially theoretical, policy is not. Science is rational, policy is not. Science deals in the factual and uncontroversial, policy does not. Although it is not my claim that public science and public, policy are the same thing, it will be a central thesis of what I have to say that the resemblances between public science and public policy are much closer than they seem, and consequently the philosophy of science and the philosophy of public policy are not widely divergent.

There is one meaning of philosophy of public policy, however, that I want to stay clear of. It is also associated with a meaning that can be attached to the philosophy of science.

Type
Part I. Philosophy of Science and Public Policy
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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