INSTRUMENTAL RATIONALITY AND NATURALIZED PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

In two recent papers, I criticized Ronald N. Giere's and Larry Laudan' s arguments for 'naturalizing' the philosophy of science (Siegel 1989, 1990). Both Giere and Laudan replied to my criticisms (Giere 1989, La udan 1990b). The key issue arising in both interchanges is these natur alists' embrace of instrumental conceptions of rationality, and their concomitant rejection of non-instrumental conceptions of that key norm ative notion. In this reply I argue that their accounts of science's r ationality as exclusively instrumental fail, and consequently that the ir cases for 'normatively naturalizing the philosophy of science fail as well.