Philosophy of Science : A Contemporary Introduction

by Rosenberg, Alexander

• ISBN13: 9780415343176
• ISBN10: 0415343178
• Additional ISBN(s): 9780415152815
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-06-13
• Publisher: Routledge
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

This user-friendly text covers key issues in the philosophy of science in an accessible and philosophically serious way. It will prove valuable to students studying philosophy of science as well as science students.Prize-winning author Alex Rosenberg explores the philosophical problems that science raises by its very nature and method. He skilfully demonstrates that scientific explanation, laws, causation, theory, models, evidence, reductionism, probability, teleology, realism and instrumentalism actually pose the same questions that Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Kant and their successors have grappled with for centuries. It features:* chapter overviews and summaries* a wide variety of clear supportive examples drawn from science* study questions* a glossary and annotated further reading

Author Biography

Alex Rosenberg is R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
1 Why philosophy of science?	1	(20)
Overview
1.1 The relationship between science and philosophy	2	(4)
1.2 Scientific questions and questions about science	6	(2)
1.3 Modern science as philosophy	8	(5)
1.4 Science and western civilization	13	(5)
Summary	18	(1)
Study questions	18	(1)
Suggested reading	19	(2)
2 Explanation, causation and laws	21	(27)
Overview	21	(1)
2.1 Logical positivism sets the agenda	22	(3)
2.2 Defining scientific explanation	25	(8)
2.3 Why do laws explain?	33	(4)
2.4 Counterexamples and the pragmatics of explanation	37	(7)
Summary	44	(1)
Study questions	45	(1)
Suggested reading	45	(3)
3 Scientific explanation and its discontents	48	(21)
Overview	48	(1)
3.1 Inexact laws and probabilities	49	(7)
3.2 Causation and teleology	56	(5)
3.3 From intelligibility to necessity	61	(5)
Summary	66	(1)
Study questions	67	(1)
Suggested reading	67	(2)
4 The structure and metaphysics of scientific theories	69	(43)
Overview	69	(1)
4.1 How do theories work?	70	(10)
4.2 Reduction, replacement and the progress of science	80	(4)
4.3 The problem of theoretical terms and the things they name	84	(13)
4.4 Theories and models	97	(6)
4.5 A case study: the theory of natural selection	103	(4)
Summary	107	(2)
Study questions	109	(1)
Suggested reading	109	(3)
5 The epistemology of scientific theorizing	112	(33)
Overview	112	(1)
5.1 A brief history of empiricism as science's epistemology	113	(3)
5.2 The epistemology of scientific testing	116	(4)
5.3 Induction as a pseudo-problem: Popper's gambit	120	(5)
5.4 Statistics and probability to the rescue?	125	(13)
5.5 Underdetermination	138	(2)
Summary	140	(2)
Study questions	142	(1)
Suggested reading	142	(3)
6 The challenge of history and post-positivism	145	(25)
Overview	145	(1)
6.1 A place for history?	146	(10)
6.2 No place for first philosophy?	156	(7)
6.3 Are scientific research programs rational?	163	(4)
Summary	167	(1)
Study questions	168	(1)
Suggested reading	169	(1)
7 The contested character of science and the fundamental questions of philosophy	170	(24)
Overview	170	(1)
7.1 From philosophy through history to postmodernism	171	(8)
7.2 Scientism, sexism and significant truths	179	(5)
7.3 Dealing with relativism: could the Earth really be flat?	184	(7)
Summary	191	(1)
Study questions	192	(1)
Suggested reading	192	(2)
Glossary	194	(8)
Bibliography	202	(4)
Index	206