Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This text focuses on two major issues: the nature of scientific inquiry and the relations between scientific disciplines. Designed to introduce the basic issues and concepts in the philosophy of science, Bechtel writes for an audience with little or no philosophical background.

The first part of the book explores the legacy of Logical Positivism and the subsequent post-Positivistic developments in the philosophy of science. The second section examines arguments for and against using a model of theory reduction to integrate scientific disciplines. The book concludes with a chapter describing non-reductionist approaches for relating scientific disciplines using psycholinguistic and cognitive neuroscience models.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This short introductory book presents the contributions that the philosophy of science can make to cognitive science. Chapter 1 relates philosophy of science to other areas of philosophy, while Chapters 2 through 4 provide a remarkably clear and compact history of major philosophical positions over the last 60 years concerning the general nature of science and of scientific explanation: logical positivism and the challenges to it, followed by the post-positivist philosophies of Kuhn, Lakatos, Feyerabend, and Laudan. Although the illustrations in these chapters are drawn from cognitive science, the chapters are suitable for anyone looking for a short and accurate account of the field. Chapters 5 and 6 are more directly relevant to cognitive science, for they deal with the hotly debated question of the relationship between cognitive science and other disciplines, especially neuroscience. The classical model of theory reduction is explored, and in these chapters--of independent philosophical interest--a different model of "interfield theories" is applied to cognitive science. Contains excellent references. Highly recommended to readers with interests in cognitive science; Chapters 2 through 4 provide undergraduates with an excellent overview of recent philosophy of science. D. D. Merrill Oberlin College