The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science

by Curd; Martin

• ISBN13: 9780415354035
• ISBN10: 041535403X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-03-31
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This indispensable reference source and guide to the major themes, debates, problems and topics in philosophy of science contains fifty-five specially commissioned entries by a leading team of international contributors. Organized into four parts it covers: Historical and Philosophical Context Debates Concepts The Individual Sciences The Companion covers everything students of philosophy of science need to know - from empiricism, explanation and experiment to causation, observation, prediction and more - and contains many helpful features including: a section on the individual sciences, including chapters on the philosophy of biology, chemistry, physics and psychology, further reading and cross-referencing at the end of each chapter.

Table of Contents

Historical and philosophical context	p. 1
The epistemology of science after Quine	p. 3
The history of philosophy and the philosophy of science	p. 15
Metaphysics	p. 26
Philosophy of language	p. 36
The role of logic in philosophy of science	p. 47
Critical rationalism	p. 58
The historical turn in the philosophy of science	p. 67
Logical empiricism	p. 78
Pragmatism and science	p. 91
Debates	p. 101
Bayesianism	p. 103
Confirmation	p. 115
Empiricism	p. 129
Essentialism and natural kinds	p. 139
Ethics of science	p. 149
Experiment	p. 159
Explanation	p. 171
The feminist approach to the philosophy of science	p. 182
Inference to the best explanation	p. 193
Laws of nature	p. 203
Naturalism	p. 213
Realism/anti-realism	p. 224
Relativism about science	p. 236
Scientific method	p. 248
Social studies of science	p. 259
The structure of theories	p. 269
Theory-change in science	p. 281
Underdetermination	p. 292
Values in science	p. 302
Concepts	p. 315
Causation	p. 317
Determinism	p. 327
Evidence	p. 337
Function	p. 349
Idealization	p. 358
Measurement	p. 367
Mechanisms	p. 376
Models Demetris Portides	p. 385
Observation	p. 396
Prediction	p. 405
Probability	p. 414
Reduction	p. 425
Representation in science	p. 435
Scientific discovery	p. 442
Space and time	p. 452
Symmetry	p. 468
Truthlikeness	p. 478
Unification	p. 489
The virtues of a good theory	p. 498
Individual sciences	p. 509
Biology	p. 511
Chemistry	p. 520
Cognitive science	p. 531
Economics	p. 543
Mathematics	p. 555
Physics	p. 567
Psychology	p. 581
Social sciences	p. 594
Index	p. 605
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.