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Preface | p. xi |
Philosophy and Science | p. 1 |
Overview | p. 1 |
What Is Philosophy? | p. 1 |
Philosophy and the Emergence of the Sciences | p. 3 |
Science and the Divisions of Philosophy | p. 5 |
What if There Are No Questions Left Over when Science Is Finished? | p. 6 |
A Short History of Philosophy as the Philosophy of Science | p. 8 |
Summary | p. 18 |
Study Questions | p. 19 |
Suggested Readings | p. 19 |
Why Is Philosophy of Science Important? | p. 21 |
Overview | p. 21 |
Scientific Questions and Questions about Science | p. 21 |
Modern Science Has Implications for Philosophy | p. 24 |
The Cultural Significance of Science | p. 30 |
Why Is Science the Only Feature of Western Culture Universally Adopted? | p. 33 |
Summary | p. 35 |
Study Questions | p. 36 |
Suggested Readings | p. 36 |
Scientific Explanation | p. 39 |
Overview | p. 39 |
Defining Scientific Explanation | p. 40 |
The Role of Laws in Scientific Explanation | p. 42 |
The Covering Law Model | p. 45 |
Problems for the Covering Law Model | p. 48 |
A Competing Conception of Scientific Explanation | p. 53 |
Summary | p. 56 |
Study Questions | p. 57 |
Suggested Readings | p. 58 |
Why Do Laws Explain? | p. 61 |
Overview | p. 61 |
What Is a Law of Nature? | p. 62 |
Counterfactual Support as a Symptom of the Necessity of Laws | p. 63 |
Counterfactuals and Causation | p. 65 |
Coming to Grips with Nomic Necessity | p. 67 |
Denying the Obvious? | p. 74 |
Summary | p. 77 |
Study Questions | p. 78 |
Suggested Readings | p. 78 |
Causation, Inexact Laws and Statistical Probabilities | p. 81 |
Overview | p. 81 |
Causes as Explainers | p. 82 |
Ceteris Paribus Laws | p. 87 |
Statistical Laws and Probabilistic Causes | p. 89 |
Explanation as Unification | p. 93 |
Summary | p. 95 |
Study Questions | p. 96 |
Suggested Readings | p. 96 |
Laws and Explanations in Biology and the "Special Sciences" | p. 97 |
Overview | p. 97 |
Dissatisfaction with Causal Explanations | p. 98 |
Proprietary Laws in the "Special Sciences" | p. 100 |
Functional Laws and Biological Explanations | p. 103 |
Explaining Purposes or Explaining Them Away? | p. 106 |
From Intelligibility to Necessity | p. 107 |
Summary | p. 111 |
Study Questions | p. 112 |
Suggested Readings | p. 112 |
The Structure of Scientific Theories | p. 115 |
Overview | p. 115 |
How Do Theories Work? The Example of Newtonian Mechanics | p. 116 |
Theories as Explainers: The Hypothetico-Deductive Model | p. 121 |
The Philosophical Significance of Newtonian Mechanics and Theories | p. 127 |
Summary | p. 132 |
Study Questions | p. 133 |
Suggested Readings | p. 133 |
Epistemic and Metaphysical Issues About Scientific Theories | p. 135 |
Overview | p. 135 |
Reduction, Replacement and the Progress of Science | p. 136 |
The Problem of Theoretical Terms | p. 142 |
Scientific Realism vs. Antirealism | p. 150 |
Summary | p. 157 |
Study Questions | p. 158 |
Suggested Readings | p. 159 |
Theory Construction vs. Model Building | p. 161 |
Overview | p. 161 |
Theories and Models | p. 162 |
Semantic vs. Syntactic Approaches to Theories and Models | p. 166 |
A Case Study: Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection | p. 169 |
Models and Theories in Evolutionary Biology | p. 173 |
Summary | p. 177 |
Study Questions | p. 178 |
Suggested Readings | p. 178 |
Induction and Probability | p. 179 |
Overview | p. 179 |
The Problem of Induction | p. 180 |
Statistics and Probability to the Rescue? | p. 185 |
How Much Can Bayes' Theorem Really Help? | p. 192 |
Summary | p. 198 |
Study Questions | p. 199 |
Suggested Readings | p. 199 |
Confirmation, Falsification, Underdetermination | p. 201 |
Overview | p. 201 |
Epistemological Problems of Hypothesis Testing | p. 201 |
Induction as a Pseudo-Problem: Popper's Gambit | p. 206 |
Underdetermination | p. 211 |
Summary | p. 215 |
Study Questions | p. 216 |
Suggested Readings | p. 216 |
Challenges from the History of Science | p. 219 |
Overview | p. 219 |
A Role for History in the Philosophy of Science? | p. 220 |
New Paradigms and Scientific Revolutions | p. 225 |
Are Scientific Research Programs Rational? | p. 230 |
Summary | p. 234 |
Study Questions | p. 235 |
Suggested Readings | p. 236 |
Naturalism in the Philosophy of Science | p. 237 |
Overview | p. 237 |
Quine and the Surrender of First Philosophy | p. 237 |
Naturalism, Multiple Realizability and Supervenience | p. 242 |
Naturalism's Problem of Justification | p. 248 |
Summary | p. 250 |
Study Questions | p. 250 |
Suggested Readings | p. 251 |
The Contested Character of Science | p. 253 |
Overview | p. 253 |
Methodological Anarchism | p. 254 |
The "Strong Program" in the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge | p. 256 |
Postmodernism and the Science Wars | p. 261 |
Does the Sokal Hoax Prove Anything? | p. 263 |
Scientism, Sexism and Significant Truths | p. 265 |
Summary | p. 271 |
Study Questions | p. 271 |
Suggested Readings | p. 272 |
Science, Relativism and Objectivity | p. 273 |
Overview | p. 273 |
Relativism and Conceptual Schemes | p. 273 |
Dealing with Incommensurability | p. 277 |
Conclusion: The Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme | p. 281 |
Study Questions | p. 282 |
Suggested Readings | p. 282 |
Glossary | p. 283 |
Bibliography | p. 293 |
Index | p. 299 |
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The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.
The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.