PhilosophyofScience
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Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (Science and Its Conceptual Foun…
485If you could pick 5 philosophy texts that should be read what are they and why?
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 one hundred years of debate about science. The result is a completely accessible introduction to the main themes of the philosophy of science.Intended for undergraduates and general readers with no prior background in philosophy, Theory and Real… more about book… -
Scientific Realism: How Science Tracks Truth (Philosophical Issues in Science)
338Plenty of today’s scientific theories will one day be discredited. So should we be sceptical of science itself?
Scientific realism is the optimistic view that modern science is on the right track: that the world really is the way our best scientific theories describe it . In his book, Stathis Psillos gives us a detailed and comprehensive study which restores the intuitive plausibility of scientific realism. We see that throughout the twentieth century, scientific realism has been challenged by philosophical positions from all angles: from reductive empiricism, to instrumentalism and to modern sceptical… more about book… -
The Scientific Image (Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy)
336“It’s a delusion to believe that causality is built into the fabric of the world and that science is uncovering the laws of causality by empirical observation. Causality is not in the world. It is constructed in the head of the observer.”
In this book van Fraassen develops an alternative to scientific realism by constructing and evaluating three mutually reinforcing theories. more about book… -
The Metaphysics Within Physics
332Reading Recommendations in Philosophy of Science
What fundamental account of the world is implicit in physical theory? Physics straightforwardly postulates quarks and electrons, but what of the more intangible elements, such as laws of nature, universals, causation and the direction of time? Do they have a place in the physical structure of the world? Tim Maudlin argues that the ontology derived from physics takes a form quite different from those most commonly defended by philosophers. Physics postulates irreducible fundamental laws, esche… more about book… -
Probability Theory: The Logic of Science
312“Alan: Or, My Friend the Utility Monster”
Going beyond the conventional mathematics of probability theory, this study views the subject in a wider context. It discusses new results, along with applications of probability theory to a variety of problems. The book contains many exercises and is suitable for use as a textbook on graduate-level courses involving data analysis. Aimed at readers already familiar with applied mathematics at an advanced undergraduate level or higher, it is of interest to scientists concerned with inference f… more about book…