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

• • 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