Scientific Method: A Historical and Philosophical Introduction

Description

The results, conclusions and claims of natural science are often taken to be reliable because they arise from the use of a distinctive method. Yet today, there is widespread scepticism as to whether we can validly talk of method in modern science. This outstanding new survey explains how this controversy has developed since the seventeenth century and explores its philosophical basis. Questions of scientific method are discussed through key figures such as Galileo, Bacon, Newton, Bayes, Mill, Poincare, Duhem, Popper, and Carnap. The concluding chapters contain stimulating discussions of attacks on the idea of scientific method by key figures such as Kuhn, Lakatos, and Feyerabend. Essential reading for students of the history and philosophy of science. Scientific Method will also appeal to anyone with an interest in what philosophers say about science. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 Preface......Page 7 Introduction......Page 10 Galileo Galilei: New methods for a new science......Page 30 Francis Bacon: Why experiments matter......Page 49 Isaac Newton: Rules for reasoning scientifically......Page 72 The Bernoullis and Thomas Bayes: Probability and scientific method......Page 92 John Herschel, John Stuart Mill and William Whewell: The uses of hypotheses......Page 118 Henri Poincare and Pierre Duhem: Conventions and scientific reasoning......Page 139 John Venn and Charles Peirce: Probabilities as frequencies......Page 161 John Maynard Keynes and Frank Ramsey: Probability logic......Page 179 Hans Reichenbach and Karl Popper: The (in) dispensability of induction......Page 198 Rudolf Carnap: Scientific method as Bayesian reasoning......Page 221 Conclusion: Experimental interventions and social constructions......Page 245 Bibliography......Page 271 Index......Page 281