The scientific image / Bas C. van Fraassen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Van Fraassen, Bas C., 1941-

Series:

Clarendon library of logic and philosophy.

Clarendon library of logic and philosophy

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science--Philosophy.

Science.

Philosophy, Modern--20th century.

Philosophy, Modern.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (248 p.)

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1980.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this book van Fraassen develops an alternative to scientific realism by constructing and evaluating three mutually reinforcing theories.

Contents:

Intro

CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

2. ARGUMENTS CONCERNING SCIENTIFIC REALISM

1. Scientific Realism and Constructive Empiricism

1.1 Statement of Scientific Realism

1.2 Alternatives to Realism

1.3 Constructive Empiricism

2. The Theory/Observation 'Dichotomy'

3. Inference to the Best Explanation

4. Limits of the Demand for Explanation

5. The Principle of the Common Cause

6. Limits to Explanation: a Thought Experiment

7. Demons and the Ultimate Argument

3. TO SAVE THE PHENOMENA

1. Models

2. Apparent Motion and Absolute Space

3. Empirical Content of Newton's Theory

4. Theories and their Extensions

5. Extensions: Victory and Qualified Defeat

6. Failure of the Syntactic Approach

7. The Hermeneutic Circle

8. Limits to Empirical Description

9. A New Picture of Theories

4. EMPIRICISM AND SCIENTIFIC METHODOLOGY

1. Empiricist Epistemology and Scepticism

2. Methodology and Experimental Design

2.1 The Roles of Theory

2.2 Measuring the Charge of the Electron

2.3 Boyd on the Philosophical Explanation of Methodology

2.4 Phenomenology of Scientific Activity

3. The Conjunction Objection

4. Pragmatic Virtues and Explanation

4.1 The Other Virtues

4.2 The Incursion of Pragmatics

4.3 Pursuit of Explanation

5. THE PRAGMATICS OF EXPLANATION

1. The Language of Explanation

1.1 Truth and Grammar

1.2 Some Examples

2. A Biased History

2.1 Hempel: Grounds for Belief

2.2 Salmon: Statistically Relevant Factors

2.3 Global Properties of Theories

2.4 The Difficulties: Asymmetries and Rejections

2.5 Causality: the Conditio Sine Qua Non

2.6 Causality: Salmon's Theory

2.7 The Clues of Causality

2.8 Why-questions

2.9 The Clues Elaborated

3. Asymmetries of Explanation: A Short Story

3.1 Asymmetry and Context: the Aristotelian Sieve.

3.2 'The Tower and the Shadow'

4. A Model for Explanation

4.1 Contexts and Propositions

4.2 Questions

4.3 A Theory of Why-questions

4.4 Evaluation of Answers

4.5 Presupposition and Relevance Elaborated

5. Conclusion

6. PROBABILITY: THE NEW MODALITY OF SCIENCE

1. Statistics in General Science

2. Classical Statistical Mechanics

2.1 The Measure of Ignorance

2.2 Objective and Epistemic Probability Disentangled

2.3 The Intrusion of Infinity

3. Probability in Quantum Mechanics

3.1 The Disanalogies with the Classical Case

3.2 Quantum Probabilities as Conditional

3.3 Virtual Ensembles of Measurements

4. Towards an Empiricist Interpretation of Probability

4.1 Probability Spaces as Models of Experiments

4.2 The Strict Frequency Interpretation

4.3 Propensity and Virtual Sequences

4.4 A Modal Frequency Interpretation

4.5 Empirical Adequacy of Statistical Theories

5. Modality: Philosophical Retrenchment

5.1 Empiricism and Modality

5.2 The Language of Science

5.3 Modality without Metaphysics

7. GENTLE POLEMICS

NOTES

INDEX.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-281-98912-6

9786611989125

0-19-151972-3

OCLC:

370966278