Philosophy of science

Daftendirekt

Hey there,

This should probably have gone to the Philosophy forum, but it seems like people round these parts are pretty big into their science.

I'm basically looking to read up on some of the philosophy behind the modern scientific method, but I don't know where to start. I'm just looking for some books that might be of interest.

I've heard the name Karl Popper mentioned with regard to this subject; is he one of the bigger philosophy of science thinkers? Any literature of his I should look into?

Any other names worth investigating?

Húrin

Popper definitely. Go back to where it all began too: Rene Descartes Discourse on the Method. Much easier to read than you might expect and probably available in your local library.

ChocolateSauce

From Wikipedia:

• Agassi, J., (1975), Science in Flux, Reidel, Dordrecht.

• Agassi, J. and Jarvie, I. C. (1987), Rationality: The Critical View, Kluwer, Dordrecht.

• Augros, Robert M., Stanciu, George N., The New Story of Science: mind and the universe, Lake Bluff, Ill.: Regnery Gateway, c1984. ISBN 0895268337

• Ben-Ari, M. (2005) Just a theory: exploring the nature of science, Prometheus Books, Amherst, N.Y.

• Bovens, L. and Hartmann, S. (2003), Bayesian Epistemology, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

• Boyd, R., Gasper, P., and Trout, J.D. (eds., 1991), The Philosophy of Science, Blackwell Publishers, Cambridge, MA.

• Feyerabend, Paul K. 2005. Science, history of the philosophy of. Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford.

• Glazebrook, Trish (2000), Heidegger's Philosophy of Science, Fordham University Press.

• Godfrey-Smith, P. (2003) Theory and reality: an introduction to the philosophy of science, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London

• Gutting, Gary (2004), Continental Philosophy of Science, Blackwell Publishers, Cambridge, MA.

• Harris, Errol E. (1965), The Foundations of Metaphysics in Science , George Allen and Unwin, London, Reprinted by Routledge, London (2002).

• Harris, Errol E. (1991), Cosmos and Anthropos, Humanities Press, New Jersey.

• Hawking, Stephen. (2001), The Universe in a Nutshell, Bantam Press. ISBN 0-553-80202-X

• Harré, R. (1972), The Philosophies of Science: An Introductory Survey, Oxford University Press, London, UK.

• Heelan, Patrick A. (1983), Space-Perception and the Philosophy of Science, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

• Honderich, Ted (Ed.) (2005) The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford University Press. New York, NY.

• Kearney, R. (1994), Routledge History of Philosophy, Routledge Press. See Vol. 8.

• Klemke, E., et al. (eds., 1998), Introductory Readings in The Philosophy of Science, Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York, NY.

• Kneale, William, and Kneale, Martha (1962), The Development of Logic, Oxford University Press, London, UK.

• Kuipers, T.A.F. (2001), Structures in Science, An Advanced Textbook in Neo-Classical Philosophy of Science, Synthese Library, Springer-Verlag.

• Ladyman, J. (2002), Understanding Philosophy of Science, Routledge, London, UK.

• Losee, J. (1998), A Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

• Newton-Smith, W.H. (ed., 2001), A Companion to the Philosophy of Science, Blackwell Publishers, Malden, MA.

• Niiniluoto, I. (2002), Critical Scientific Realism, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

• Pap, A. (1962), An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, The Free Press, New York, NY.

• Papineau, D. (ed., 1997), The Philosophy of Science, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

• Papineau, David. 2005. Science, problems of the philosophy of. Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford.

• Piattelli-Palmarini, Massimo (ed., 1980), Language and Learning, The Debate between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

• Polanyi, Michael (1946). Science, Faith, and Society. Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 0-226-67290-5. Reprinted by the University of Chicago Press, 1964.

• Alexander Rosenberg, (2000), Philosophy of Science: A Contemporary Introduction, Routledge, London, UK.

• Runes, D.D. (ed.), Dictionary of Philosophy, Littlefield, Adams, and Company, Totowa, NJ, 1962.

• Salmon, M.H., et al. (1999), Introduction to the Philosophy of Science: A Text By Members of the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science of the University of Pittsburgh, Hacket Publishing Company, Indianapolis, IN.

• Snyder, Paul (1977), Toward One Science: The Convergence of Traditions, St Martin's Press.

• van Fraassen, Bas C. (1980), The Scientific Image, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

• van Luik, James, The Energy of Ideas, Crow Hill Press, Cambridge, MA. 2000

• Walker, Benjamin, Caesar's Church: The Irrational in Science & Philosophy, Book Guild, Lewes, Sussex, 2001, ISBN 1-85776-625-3

• Ziman, John (2000). Real Science: what it is, and what it means. Cambridge, Uk: Cambridge University Press.

Daftendirekt

Thanks. Plenty to be going on with there.

awombler

I'm just a little surprised to see Thomas Kuhn missing from that list. I think he's actually more thought provoking that Popper.

I tend to agree with the view that Popper's idea of falsification is useful as a sort of formal statement of what's to be aimed for. But I think Kuhn's ideas are more relevant to the real world.