Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues
J. A. Cover and Martin Curd (W.W. Norton & Company: Mar 17, 1998), 1408 pages.Gathering 49 readings on a variety of topics — science and pseudoscience; rationality, objectivity, and values in science; laws of nature; models of explanation, among others — this anthology introduces students to the often challenging problems examined by major thinkers in the field. Combine this with thoughtful and thorough apparatus, and Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues is the most flexible and comprehensive collection ever created for undergraduate courses. ~ Product Description
Table of Contents
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- Preface
- General Introduction
- Science: Conjectures and Refutations 3
- Logic of Discovery or Psychology of Research? 11
- Science and Pseudoscience 20
- Why Astrology Is a Pseudoscience 27
- Creation-Science Is Not Science 38
- Commentary: Science at the Bar – Causes for Concern 48
- Response to the Commentary: Pro Judice 54
- The Nature and Necessity of Scientific Revolutions 86
- Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory Choice 102
- Rationality and Paradigm Change in Science 119
- Dissecting the Holist Picture of Scientific Change 139
- Values and Objectivity 170
- Gender and the Biological Sciences 192
- Physical Theory and Experiment 257
- Two Dogmas of Empiricism 280
- The Duhem Thesis and the Quine Thesis 302
- Demystifying Underdetermination 320
- Induction 412
- The Problem of Induction 426
- Rational Prediction 433
- Criteria of Confirmation and Acceptability 445
- Is Evidence Historical? 460
- Explanation v. Prediction: Which Carries More Weight? 481
- Rationality and Objectivity in Science or Tom Kuhn Meets Tom Bayes 551
- Why I Am Not a Bayesian 584
- Wittgensteinian Bayesianism 607
- The Value of Laws: Explanation and Prediction 678
- Two Basic Types of Scientific Explanation 685
- The Thesis of Structural Identity 695
- Inductive-Statistical Explanation 706
- Arguments, Laws, and Explanation 720
- A Deductive-Nomological Model of Probabilistic Explanation 746
- What Is a Law of Nature? 808
- Laws of Nature 826
- Necessities and Universals in Natural Laws 846
- Do the Laws of Physics State the Facts? 865
- Issues in the Logic of Reductive Explanations 905
- How to Be a Good Empiricist – A Plea for Tolerance in Matters Epistemological 922
- Two Concepts of Intertheoretic Reduction 950
- 1953 and All That: A Tale of Two Sciences 971
- The Ontological Status of Theoretical Entities 1052
- Arguments Concerning Scientific Realism 1064
- Realism versus Constructive Empiricism 1088
- A Confutation of Convergent Realism 1114
- Explaining the Success of Science 1136
- Experimentation and Scientific Realism 1153
- Hacking’s Experimental Realism 1169
- The Natural Ontological Attitude 1186
- NOA’s Ark – Fine for Realism 1209
- Glossary 1291
- Bibliography 1311
- Permissions Acknowledgments 1331
- Name Index 1335
- Subject Index 1349