Essays in Science and Philosophy PDF Download

Author: Alfred North Whitehead
Publisher: London ; New York : Rider
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Author: Pierre Duhem
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN: 9780872203082
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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"Here, for the first time in English, are the philosophical essays - including the first statement of the "Duhem Thesis" - that formed the basis for Aim and Structure of Physical Theory, together with new translations of the historiographical essays presenting the equally celebrated "Continuity Thesis" by Pierre Duhem (1861-1916), a founding figure of the history and philosophy of science. Prefaced by an introduction on Duhem's intellectual development and continuing significance, here as well are important subsequent essays in which Duhem elaborated key concepts and critiqued such contemporaries as Henri Poincare and Ernst Mach. Together, these works offer a lively picture of the state of science at the turn of the century while addressing methodological issues that remain at the center of debate today."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Author: Peter Achinstein
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199755736
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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The essays in this volume address three fundamental questions in the philosophy of science: What is required for some fact to be evidence for a scientific hypothesis? What does it mean to say that a scientist or a theory explains a phenomenon? Should scientific theories that postulate "unobservable" entities such as electrons be construed realistically as aiming to correctly describe a world underlying what is directly observable, or should such theories be understood as aiming to correctly describe only the observable world? Distinguished philosopher of science Peter Achinstein provides answers to each of these questions in essays written over a period of more than 40 years. The present volume brings together his important previously published essays, allowing the reader to confront some of the most basic and challenging issues in the philosophy of science, and to consider Achinstein's many influential contributions to the solution of these issues. He presents a theory of evidence that relates this concept to probability and explanation; a theory of explanation that relates this concept to an explaining act as well as to the different ways in which explanations are to be evaluated; and an empirical defense of scientific realism that invokes both the concept of evidence and that of explanation.

Author: Matthew H. Slater
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019936320X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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This volume of new essays, written by leading philosophers of science, explores a broadly methodological question: what role should metaphysics play in our philosophizing about science? The essays address this question both through ground-level investigations of particular issues in the metaphysics of science and by more general methodological investigations.

Author: P.E. Griffiths
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9780792317098
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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This volume contains papers presented by New Zealand and American philosophers of biology during a recent visit to New Zealand by Elliott Sober. Some of the papers reveal a unique local perspective on current debates. Robin Craw's highly original contribution to the `evolutionary' philosophy of science initiated by David Hull, applies to intellectual evolution the strongly biogeographic approach to the evolution of life that is a recognised New Zealand speciality. Other papers reflect past intellectual exchange between the two countries. Susan Oyama and Russell Gray's papers on the `developmental systems' approach to evolution, for example, are the outcome of several years of fruitful exchange. The remaining papers in the volume cover a wide range of topics. In addition to Sober's own discussion of post-sociobiological treatments of cultural evolution the volume includes Kim Sterelny's evaluation of `macroevolution', Paul Griffiths' analysis of adaptation and vestigiality, John Morss on the notion of ontogeny and Timothy Shanahan on the concept of drift.

Author: Albert Einstein
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1453204792
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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The Authorized Albert Einstein Archives Edition: An homage to the men and women of science, and an exposition of Einstein’s place in scientific history. In this fascinating collection of articles and speeches, Albert Einstein reflects not only on the scientific method at work in his own theoretical discoveries, but also eloquently expresses a great appreciation for his scientific contemporaries and forefathers, including Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Max Planck, and Niels Bohr. While Einstein is renowned as one of the foremost innovators of modern science, his discoveries uniquely his own, through his own words it becomes clear that he viewed himself as only the most recent in a long line of scientists driven to create new ways of understanding the world and to prove their scientific theories. Einstein’s thoughtful examinations explain the “how” of scientific innovations both in his own theoretical work and in the scientific method established by those who came before him. This authorized ebook features a new introduction by Neil Berger, PhD, and an illustrated biography of Albert Einstein, which includes rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Author: John Earman
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520075771
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
These provocative essays by leading philosophers of science exemplify and illuminate the contemporary uncertainty and excitement in this changing field. The papers are rich in new perspectives, and their far-reaching criticisms challenge arguments long prevalent in classic philosophical problems of induction, empiricism, and realism. By turns empirical or analytic, historical or programmatic, confessional or argumentative, the authors' arguments both describe and demonstrate the fact that philosophy of science is in a ferment more intense than at any time since the heyday of logical positivism seventy years ago.

Author: David L. Hull
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521644051
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
One way to understand science is as a selection process. David Hull, one of the dominant figures in contemporary philosophy of science, sets out in this 2001 volume a general analysis of this selection process that applies equally to biological evolution, the reaction of the immune system to antigens, operant learning, and social and conceptual change in science. Hull aims to distinguish between those characteristics that are contingent features of selection and those that are essential. Science and Selection brings together many of David Hull's most important essays on selection (some never before published) in one accessible volume.

Author: Robert G. Colodny
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN: 0822975890
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
The six essays in this volume discuss philosophical thought on scientific theory including:a call for a realist, rather than instrumentalist interpretation of science; a critique of one of the core ideas of positivism concerning the relation between observational and theoretical languages; using aerodynamics to discuss the representational aspect of scientific theories and their isomorphic qualities; the relationship between the reliability of common sense and the authenticity of the world view of science; removing long-held ambiguities on the theory of inductive logic; and the relationship between the actuality of conceptual revolutions in the history of science and traditional philosophical pictures of scientific theory-building.

Author: Mark Kac
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9780817647742
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
This is a volume of essays and reviews that delightfully explores mathematics in all its moods — from the light and the witty, and humorous to serious, rational, and cerebral. These beautifully written articles from three great modern mathematicians will provide a source for supplemental reading for almost any math class. Topics include: logic, combinatorics, statistics, economics, artificial intelligence, computer science, and broad applications of mathematics. Readers will also find coverage of history and philosophy, including discussion of the work of Ulam, Kant, and Heidegger, among others.