Images of Science

by Churchland, Paul; Hooker, Clifford

• ISBN13: 9780226106540
• ISBN10: 0226106543
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1985-10-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

"Churchland and Hooker have collected ten papers by prominent philosophers of science which challenge van Fraassen's thesis from a variety of realist perspectives. Together with van Fraassen's extensive reply . . . these articles provide a comprehensive picture of the current debate in philosophy of science between realists and anti-realists."--Jeffrey Bub and David MacCallum, Foundations of Physics Letters

Author Biography

Paul M. Churchland is professor of philosophy at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Scientific Realism and the Plasticity of Mind and Matter and Consciousness. Clifford A. Hooker is professor of philosophy at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Among the books he has edited are Contemporary Research in the Foundations and Philosophy of Quantum Theory and Physical Theory as a Logico-Operational Structure.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Essays Addressed to Bas C. van Fraassen
Lex Orandi est Lex Credendi	p. 3
The Ontological Status of Observables: In Praise of the Superempirical Virtues	p. 35
What Science Aims to Do	p. 48
Constructive Realism	p. 75
Explanation and Realism	p. 99
Scientific Realism versus Constructive Empiricism: A Dialogue	p. 118
Do We See through a Microscope?	p. 132
Surface Dazzle, Ghostly Depths: An Exposition and Critical Evaluation of van Fraassen's Vindication of Empiricism against Realism	p. 153
Realism versus Constructive Empiricism	p. 197
What Can Theory Tell Us about Observation?	p. 222
Bas C. van Fraassen Replies to His Critics
Empiricism in the Philosophy of Science	p. 245
List of Contributors	p. 309
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