Essays In The Philosophy Of Science

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Essays in the History and Philosophy of Science

Pierre Duhem,Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem
Essays in the History and Philosophy of Science Book PDF

Author : Pierre Duhem,Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem
Publisher : Hackett Publishing
Page : 314 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 1996-01-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0872203085

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Essays in the History and Philosophy of Science by Pierre Duhem,Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem Pdf

"Here, for the first time in English, are the philosophical essays - including the first statement of the "Duhem Thesis" - that formed the basis for Aim and Structure of Physical Theory, together with new translations of the historiographical essays presenting the equally celebrated "Continuity Thesis" by Pierre Duhem (1861-1916), a founding figure of the history and philosophy of science. Prefaced by an introduction on Duhem's intellectual development and continuing significance, here as well are important subsequent essays in which Duhem elaborated key concepts and critiqued such contemporaries as Henri Poincare and Ernst Mach. Together, these works offer a lively picture of the state of science at the turn of the century while addressing methodological issues that remain at the center of debate today."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science

Matthew Slater,Zanja Yudell
Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science Book PDF

Author : Matthew Slater,Zanja Yudell
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2017-02-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780199363223

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Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science by Matthew Slater,Zanja Yudell Pdf

The question of the proper role of metaphysics in philosophy of science is both significant and contentious. The last few decades have seen considerable engagement with philosophical projects aptly described as "the metaphysics of science:" inquiries into natural laws and properties, natural kinds, causal relations, and dispositions. At the same time, many metaphysicians have begun moving in the direction of more scientifically-informed ("scientistic" or "naturalistic") metaphysics. And yet many philosophers of science retain a deep suspicion about the significance of metaphysical investigations into science. This volume of new essays explores a broadly methodological question: what role should metaphysics play in our philosophizing about science? These new essays, written by leading philosophers of science, address this question both through ground-level investigations of particular issues in the metaphysics of science and by more general methodological inquiry.

Particles and Waves

Peter Achinstein
Particles and Waves Book PDF

Author : Peter Achinstein
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 346 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 1991
Category : Physics
ISBN : 9780195067552

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Particles and Waves by Peter Achinstein Pdf

This volume brings together six published and two new essays by the noted philosopher of science, Peter Achinstein. It represents the culmination of his examination of methodological issues that arise in nineteenth-century physics. He focuses on the philosophical problem of how, if at all, it is possible to confirm scientific hypotheses that postulate 'unobservables' such as light waves, molecules, and electrons. This question is one that not only was of great interest to nineteenth-century physicists and methodologists, but continues to occupy philosophers of science up to the present day. The essays in this volume deal with this vexing problem as it arose in actual scientific practice in three nineteenth-century episodes: the debate between particle and wave theorists of light, Maxwell's kinetic theory of gases, and J.J. Thomson's discovery of the electron. Achinstein shows that the most important issue raised by these three cases concerns the legitimacy of introducing hypotheses that invoke "unobservables". If science is to be empirical, can such hypotheses be employed? How, if at all, is it possible to confirm them?; Achinstein here assesses the philosophical validity of nineteenth-century and modern answers to these questions and presents and defends his own solutions

Evidence, Explanation, and Realism

Peter Achinstein
Evidence Explanation and Realism Book PDF

Author : Peter Achinstein
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 344 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2010-05-28
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0199755736

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Evidence, Explanation, and Realism by Peter Achinstein Pdf

The essays in this volume address three fundamental questions in the philosophy of science: What is required for some fact to be evidence for a scientific hypothesis? What does it mean to say that a scientist or a theory explains a phenomenon? Should scientific theories that postulate "unobservable" entities such as electrons be construed realistically as aiming to correctly describe a world underlying what is directly observable, or should such theories be understood as aiming to correctly describe only the observable world? Distinguished philosopher of science Peter Achinstein provides answers to each of these questions in essays written over a period of more than 40 years. The present volume brings together his important previously published essays, allowing the reader to confront some of the most basic and challenging issues in the philosophy of science, and to consider Achinstein's many influential contributions to the solution of these issues. He presents a theory of evidence that relates this concept to probability and explanation; a theory of explanation that relates this concept to an explaining act as well as to the different ways in which explanations are to be evaluated; and an empirical defense of scientific realism that invokes both the concept of evidence and that of explanation.

Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science

Matthew H. Slater,Zanja Yudell
Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science Book PDF

Author : Matthew H. Slater,Zanja Yudell
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780199363209

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Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science by Matthew H. Slater,Zanja Yudell Pdf

This volume of essays will explore the relationship between science and metaphysics, asking what role metaphysics should play in philosophizing about science. The essays will address this question both through ground-level investigations of particular issues in the metaphysics of science and more general methodological investigations. They thereby contribute to an ongoing discussion concerning the future, the limits, and the possibility of metaphysics as a legitimate philosophical project.

Essays on the Philosophy and Science of René Descartes

Stephen Voss
Essays on the Philosophy and Science of Ren Descartes Book PDF

Author : Stephen Voss
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 1993
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780195075519

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Essays on the Philosophy and Science of René Descartes by Stephen Voss Pdf

In English, with some essays translated from French. Includes bibliographical references and index.

The Understanding of Nature

Marjorie Grene
The Understanding of Nature Book PDF

Author : Marjorie Grene
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 402 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 1974-09-30
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9027704635

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The Understanding of Nature by Marjorie Grene Pdf

No student or colleague of Marjorie Grene will miss her incisive presence in these papers on the study and nature of living nature, and we believe the new reader will quickly join the stimulating discussion and critique which Professor Grene steadily provokes. For years she has worked with equally sure knowledge in the classical domain of philosophy and in modern epistemological inquiry, equally philosopher of science and metaphysician. Moreover, she has the deeply sensible notion that she should be a critically intelligent learner as much as an imaginatively original thinker, and as a result she has brought insightful expository readings of other philosophers and scientists to her own work. We were most fortunate that Marjorie Grene was willing to spend a full semester of a recent leave here in Boston, and we have on other occasions sought her participation in our colloquia and elsewhere. Now we have the pleasure of including among the Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science this generous selection from Grene's philosophical inquiries into the understanding of the natural world, and of the men and women in it. Boston University Center for the R. S. COHEN Philosophy and History of Science M. W. W ARTOFSKY April 1974 PREFACE This collection spans - spottily - years from 1946 ('On Some Distinctions between Men and Brutes') to 1974 ('On the Nature of Natural Necessity').

On Science, Inference, Information and Decision-Making

A. Szaniawski
On Science Inference Information and Decision Making Book PDF

Author : A. Szaniawski
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 1998-09-30
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0792349229

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On Science, Inference, Information and Decision-Making by A. Szaniawski Pdf

There are two competing pictures of science. One considers science as a system of inferences, whereas another looks at science as a system of actions. The essays included in this collection offer a view which intends to combine both pictures. This compromise is well illustrated by Szaniawski's analysis of statistical inferences. It is shown that traditional approaches to the foundations of statistics do not need to be regarded as conflicting with each other. Thus, statistical rules can be treated as rules of behaviour as well as rules of inference. Szaniawski's uniform approach relies on the concept of rationality, analyzed from the point of view of decision theory. Applications of formal tools to the problem of justice and division of goods shows that the concept of rationality has a wider significance. Audience: The book will be of interest to philosophers of science, logicians, ethicists and mathematicians.

Fictions in Science

Mauricio Suárez
Fictions in Science Book PDF

Author : Mauricio Suárez
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2008-10-26
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781135854713

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Fictions in Science by Mauricio Suárez Pdf

Science is popularly understood as being an ideal of impartial algorithmic objectivity that provides us with a realistic description of the world down to the last detail. The essays collected in this book—written by some of the leading experts in the field—challenge this popular image right at its heart, taking as their starting point that science trades not only in truth, but in fiction, too. With case studies that range from physics to economics and to biology, Fictions in Science reveals that fictions are as ubiquitous in scientific narratives and practice as they are in any other human endeavor, including literature and art. Of course scientific activity, most prominently in the formal sciences, employs logically precise algorithmic thinking. However, the key to the predictive and technological success of the empirical sciences might well lie elsewhere—perhaps even in scientists’ extraordinary creative imagination instead. As these essays demonstrate, within the bounds of what is empirically possible, a scientist’s capacity for invention and creative thinking matches that of any writer or artist.

Science and Selection

David L. Hull
Science and Selection Book PDF

Author : David L. Hull
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0521644054

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Science and Selection by David L. Hull Pdf

One way to understand science is as a selection process. David Hull, one of the dominant figures in contemporary philosophy of science, sets out in this 2001 volume a general analysis of this selection process that applies equally to biological evolution, the reaction of the immune system to antigens, operant learning, and social and conceptual change in science. Hull aims to distinguish between those characteristics that are contingent features of selection and those that are essential. Science and Selection brings together many of David Hull's most important essays on selection (some never before published) in one accessible volume.

The Light of Nature

J.D. North,J.J. Roche
The Light of Nature Book PDF

Author : J.D. North,J.J. Roche
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 462 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : History
ISBN : 9789400951198

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The Light of Nature by J.D. North,J.J. Roche Pdf

This volume of essays is meant as a tribute to Alistair Crombie by some of those who have studied with him. The occasion of its publication is his seven tieth birthday - 4 November 1985. Its contents are a reflection - or so it is hoped - of his own interests, and they indicate at the same time his influence on subjects he has pursued for some forty years. Born in Brisbane, Australia, Alistair Cameron Crombie took a first degree in zoology at the University of Melbourne in 1938, after which he moved to Je sus College, Cambridge. There he took a doctorate in the same subject (with a dissertation on population dynamics - foreshadowing a later interest in the history of Darwinism) in 1942. By this time he had taken up a research position with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in the Cambridge Zoological La boratory, a position he left in 1946, when he moved to a lectureship in the his tory and philosophy of science at University College, London. H. G. Andrewa ka and L. C. Birch, in a survey of the history of insect ecology (R. F. Smith, et al. , History of Entomology, 1973), recognise the importance of the works of Crombie (with which they couple the earlier work of Gause) as the principal sti mulus for the great interest taken in interspecific competition in the mid 194Os.

Explaining Explanation

Lee C. McIntyre
Explaining Explanation Book PDF

Author : Lee C. McIntyre
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : Philosophy and science
ISBN : 0761858695

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Explaining Explanation by Lee C. McIntyre Pdf

This book is a collection of Lee McIntyre's philosophical essays from over the last twenty years. Explaining Explanation focuses on the philosophy of social science and the philosophy of chemistry, but also covers more general problems such as underdetermination, explanatory exclusion, the accommodation-prediction debate, and laws in biological science.

Science and Hypothesis

Larry Laudan
Science and Hypothesis Book PDF

Author : Larry Laudan
Publisher : Springer
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2013-04-17
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789401572880

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Science and Hypothesis by Larry Laudan Pdf

This book consists of a collection of essays written between 1965 and 1981. Some have been published elsewhere; others appear here for the first time. Although dealing with different figures and different periods, they have a common theme: all are concerned with examining how the method of hy pothesis came to be the ruling orthodoxy in the philosophy of science and the quasi-official methodology of the scientific community. It might have been otherwise. Barely three centuries ago, hypothetico deduction was in both disfavor and disarray. Numerous rival methods for scientific inquiry - including eliminative and enumerative induction, analogy and derivation from first principles - were widely touted. The method of hypothesis, known since antiquity, found few proponents between 1700 and 1850. During the last century, of course, that ordering has been inverted and - despite an almost universal acknowledgement of its weaknesses - the method of hypothesis (usually under such descriptions as 'hypothetico deduction' or 'conjectures and refutations') has become the orthodoxy of the 20th century. Behind the waxing and waning of the method of hypothesis, embedded within the vicissitudes of its fortunes, there is a fascinating story to be told. It is a story that forms an integral part of modern science and its philosophy.

Science and Culture

Hermann von Helmholtz
Science and Culture Book PDF

Author : Hermann von Helmholtz
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 446 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 1995-10-15
Category : History
ISBN : 0226326586

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Science and Culture by Hermann von Helmholtz Pdf

Hermann von Helmholtz was a leading figure of nineteenth-century European intellectual life, remarkable even among the many scientists of the period for the range and depth of his interests. A pioneer of physiology and physics, he was also deeply concerned with the implications of science for philosophy and culture. From the 1850s to the 1890s, Helmholtz delivered more than two dozen popular lectures, seeking to educate the public and to enlighten the leaders of European society and governments about the potential benefits of science and technology to a developing modern society. David Cahan has selected fifteen of these lectures, which reflect the wide range of topics of crucial importance to Helmholtz and his audiences. Among the subjects discussed are the origins of the planetary system, the relation of natural science to science in general, the aims and progress of the physical sciences, the problems of perception, and academic freedom in German universities. This collection also includes Helmholtz's fascinating lectures on the relation of optics to painting and the physiological causes of harmony in music, which provide insight into the relations between science and aesthetics. Science and Culture makes available again Helmholtz's eloquent arguments on the usefulness, benefits, and, intellectual pleasures of understanding the natural world. With Cahan's Introduction to set these essays in their broader context, this collection makes an important contribution to the philosophical and intellectual history of Europe at a time when science played an increasingly significant role in social, economic, and cultural life.

Particles and Waves

Peter Achinstein
Particles and Waves Book PDF

Author : Peter Achinstein
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 346 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 1991-04-18
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780195345056

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Particles and Waves by Peter Achinstein Pdf

This volume brings together eleven essays by the distinguished philosopher of science, Peter Achinstein. The unifying theme is the nature of the philosophical problems surrounding the postulation of unobservable entities such as light waves, molecules, and electrons. How, if at all, is it possible to confirm scientific hypotheses about "unobservables"? Achinstein examines this question as it arose in actual scientific practice in three nineteenth-century episodes: the debate between particle and wave theorists of light, Maxwell's kinetic theory of gases, and J.J. Thomson's discovery of the electron. The book contains three parts, each devoted to one of these topics, beginning with an essay presenting the historical background of the episode and an introduction to the philosophical issues. There is an illuminating evaluation of various scientific methodologies, including hypothetico-deductivism, inductivism, and the method of independent warrant which combines features of the first two. Achinstein assesses the philosophical validity of both nineteenth-century and modern answers to questions about unobservables, and presents and defends his own solutions.