Theory and reality : an introduction to the philosophy of science / Peter Godfrey-Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Godfrey-Smith, Peter, author.

Contributor:

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science--Philosophy.

Science.

Physical Description:

xv, 395 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2021.

Summary:

"How does science work? Does it tell us what the world is "really" like? What makes it different from other ways of understanding the universe? In Theory and Reality, Peter Godfrey-Smith addresses these questions by taking the reader on a grand tour of more than a hundred years of debate about science. The result is a completely accessible introduction to the main themes of the philosophy of science. Examples and asides engage the beginning student; a glossary of terms explains key concepts; and suggestions for further reading are included at the end of each chapter. Like no other text in this field, Theory and Reality combines a survey of recent history of the philosophy of science with current key debates that any beginning scholar or critical reader can follow. The second edition is thoroughly updated and expanded by the author with a new chapter on truth, simplicity, and models in science"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: ch. 1 Introduction

1.1. Setting Out

1.2. The Scope of the Investigation

1.3. What Kind of Theory?

1.4. Three Answers, or Pieces of an Answer

1.5. A Sketch of the Scientific Revolution and What Came Afterward

Further Reading and Notes

ch. 2 Empiricism

2.1. The Empiricist Tradition

2.2. The Vienna Circle

2.3. Central Ideas of Logical Positivism

2.4. Problems and Changes

2.5. Logical Empiricism and the Web of Belief

2.6. Experience, Experiment, and Action

ch. 3 Evidence and Induction

3.1. The Mother of All Problems

3.2. Induction, Deduction, Confirmation, and Explanatory Inference

3.3. The Ravens Problem

3.4. Goodman's "New Riddle of Induction"

3.5. Optional Section: A Little More about Hypothetico-Deductivism

ch. 4 Popper: Conjecture and Refutation

4.1. Popper's Unique Place in the Philosophy of Science

4.2. Popper's Theory of Science

4.3. Popper on Scientific Change

4.4. Objections to Popper on Falsification

4.5. Objections to Popper on Confirmation

4.6. Further Comments on the Demarcation Problem

Chapters Kuhn's Revolution

5.1. "The Paradigm Has Shifted"

5.2. Paradigms: A Closer Look

5.3. Normal Science

5.4. Anomaly and Crisis

5.5. Revolutions and Their Aftermath

5.6. Incommensurability, Relativism, and Progress

5.7. The X-Rated "Chapter X"

5.8. Final Thoughts about Kuhn

ch. 6 Theories and Frameworks

6.1. After Structure

6.2. Lakatos and Research Programs

6.3. Laudan and Research Traditions

6.4. Anything Goes

6.5. An Argument from History That Haunts Philosophy

6.6. Frameworks, Theories, and Empiricism

ch. 7 The Challenge from Sociology of Science

7.1. Beyond Philosophy?

7.2. Robert Merton and the "Old" Sociology of Science

7.3. The Rise of the Strong Program

7.4. Leviathan, Latour, and the Manufacture of Facts

ch. 8 Science Is Political

8.1. A Changing Image of Science

8.2. The Man of Reason

8.3. Sex and Gender in Behavioral Biology

8.4. Feminist Epistemology

8.5. Postmodernism and the Science Wars

8.6. Values in Science

ch. 9 Naturalistic Philosophy

9.1. What Is Naturalism?

9.2. Quine and Others

9.3. The Role of Observation in Science

9.4. Science as a Process

9.5. The Division of Scientific Labor

9.6. More on Competition and the Goals of Science

ch. 10 Scientific Realism

10.1. Strange Debates

10.2. Realism

10.3. Approaching Scientific Realism

10.4. Challenges from Empiricism

10.5. Metaphysical Constructivism

10.6. Underdetermination and Progress

10.7. Natural Kinds

ch. 11 Explanation, Laws, and Causes

11.1. Knowing Why

11.2. The Rise and Fall of the Covering Law Theory of Explanation

11.3. Causation and Unification

11.4. Laws, Causes, and Interventions

ch. 12 Bayesianism and New Views of Evidence

12.1. New Hope

12.2. Degrees of Belief

12.3. Understanding Evidence with Probability

12.4. The Subjectivist Interpretation of Probability

12.5. Bayesianism and Evidence

12.6. Procedures and Experiments

ch. 13 Truth, Simplicity, and Other Problems

13.1. The Problem of Truth

13.2. Correspondence, Coherence, and Usefulness

13.3. An Indirect Approach, via Ramsey

13.4. Models

13.5. Consensus

13.6. Occam's Razor

ch. 14 The Future

14.1. Empiricism, Naturalism, and Scientific Realism

14.2. Another Kind of Scientific Change.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

9780226618654

022661865X

OCLC:

1226073943

Publisher Number:

99988334586