ABSTRACT
How has the rationalist fared? Blooded, somewhat bowed and beaten into a form he himself may not easily recognize, he has none the less survived. From our discussions a viable perspective on the scientific enterprise has emerged. This, to be called temperate rationalism, is characterized in what follows. The original schematic characterization of a rational model involved the specification of two ingredients: a goal for the scientific enterprise and an account of the principles of comparison (a methodology) to be used to give guidance in making choices between rival theories. The rationalist, it was said, hoped to use his model to account for scientific change by showing that in the case of most scientific transitions from a theory T1 to a theory T2 the following conditions were satisfied. The scientific community had as its goal the goal specified in the model. Relative to the principles of comparison, T2 was superior to T1, given the evidence available at the time. The scientific community perceived this superiority, and that perception together with the goal was the motivating factor in bringing about the change of allegiance. Consequently, the rationalist regards the history of science as constituting, by and large, progress towards the goal. The main explanatory role is accorded to internal factors. External factors such as the social conditions of the times or the psychology of the individuals involved come in only when there is a deviation from the norms implicit in the rational model.
