Readership: Students of philosophy, ethics, and science. General readers interested in science, its definition, history, scope, and difficulties, as well as issues in contemporary science, including philosophical problems in biology, physics, and linguisitics.
Samir Okasha, Lecturer in Philosophy, University of York
"the book is extremely readable and, I was delighted to discover, extremely sensible...I wouldn't have missed the trip for all the tea in Harrods" - John Ewing, Nurturing Potential
"This book gives an excellent sense of what keeps philosophers of science awake at night. The issues and the arguments are presented with stunning clarity. For those who want a first taste of our subject, Samir Okasha's Introduction is ideal." - Peter Lipton, University of Cambridge
1: What is science? A very short history of science Does science have an essential nature? Science and pseudo-science 2: Scientific reasoning Induction and deduction Hume's problem Two types of inductive reasoning Probability and induction 3: Explanation in science The 'covering-law' model of explanation Alternative models of explanation Can science explain everything? 4: Realism and anti-realism about science Scientific realism Objections to scientific realism Varieties of anti-realism 5: Scientific change and scientific revolutions Explaining scientific change Thomas Kuhn on 'normal' and 'revolutionary' science Sociological accounts of scientific change 6: Philosophical problems in physics, biology and linguistics Leibniz versus Newton on absolute space The problem of biological classification Is knowledge of language innate 7: Science and its critics Is science a good thing? Science and religion The science wars
