Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This new edition brings up to date this accessible study of the philosophy of science. Since the time of Plato and Aristotle, scientists and philosophers have raised questions about the proper evaluation of scientific interpretations. A Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Science is an exposition of differing viewpoints on issues such as the distinction between scientific inquiry and other types of interpretation, the relationship between theories and observation reports; the evaluation of competing theories; and the nature of progress in science. The author makes accessible the philosophy of science to readers who may not have extensive knowledge of formal logic or the history of the several sciences. The third edition incorporates an extended discussion of recent developments. Historicist critics of Logical Empiricism have established that evaluative standards and cognitive aims have changed within the history of science. This edition examines these changes, the recent controversies over scientific realism, casual theories of explanation, Bayesian theories of confirmation, and the search for a non-prescriptive philosophy of science. philosophers have raised questions about the proper evaluation of scientific interpretations. This is a lucid and accessible introduction to the philosophy of science, ideal for readers who may not have the extensive knowledge of formal logic or the history of the several sciences. This new edition includes an extended discussion of such recent developments and controversies as new approaches to evaluative standards and cognitive aims, scientific realism, causal theories of explanation, Bayesian theories of confirmation, and the search for a non-prescriptive philosophy of science.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction
• 1 Aristotle's Philosophy of Science
• 2 The Pythagorean Orientation
• 3 The Ideal of Deductive Systemization
• 4 Atomism and the Concept of Underlying Mechanism
• 5 Affirmation and Development of Aristotle's Method in the Medieval Period
• 6 The Debate over Saving the Appearances
• 7 The Seventeenth-Century Attack on Aristotelian Philosophy
• 8 Newton's Axiomatic Method
• 9 Analysis of the Implications of the New Science for a Theory of Scientific Method
• 10 Inductivism v the Hypothetico-Deductive View of Science
• 11 Mathematical Positivism and Conventionlism
• 12 Logical Reconstructivist Philosophy of Science
• 13 Orthodoxy under Attack
• 14 Theories of Scientific Progress
• 15 Explanation, Causation, and Unification
• 16 Confirmation and Evidential Support
• 17 The Justification of Evaluative Standards
• 18 The Debate over Scientific Realism
• 19 Descriptive Philosophies of Science
• Bibliography
• Index