Scientific Method: A Historical and Philosophical Introduction (Routledge Advances in Management and) - Softcover

Gower, Barry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415122821 ISBN 13: 9780415122825

Publisher: Routledge, 1996

Synopsis

The central theme running throughout this outstanding new survey is the nature of the philosophical debate created by modern science's foundation in experimental and mathematical method. More recently, recognition that reasoning in science is probabilistic generated intense debate about whether and how it should be constrained so as to ensure the practical certainty of the conclusions drawn. These debates brought to light issues of a philosophical nature which form the core of many scientific controversies today. Scientific Method: A Historical and Philosophical Introduction presents these debates through clear and comparative discussion of key figures in the history of science. Key chapters critically discuss
* Galileo's demonstrative method, Bacon's inductive method, and Newton's rules of reasoning
* the rise of probabilistic `Bayesian' methods in the eighteenth century
* the method of hypotheses through the work of Herschel, Mill and Whewell
* the conventionalist views of Poincaré and Duhem
* the inductivism of Peirce, Russell and Keynes
* Popper's falsification compared with Reichenbach's enumerative induction
* Carnap's scientific method as Bayesian reasoning

The debates are brought up to date in the final chapters by considering the ways in which ideas about method in the physical and biological sciences have affected thinking about method in the social sciences. This debate is analyzed through the ideas of key theorists such as Kuhn, Lakatos, and Feyerabend.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

The results, conclusions and claims of natural science are often taken to 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.

About the Author:

Barry Gower teaches Philosophy of Science at Durham University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0415122821
• ISBN 13: 9780415122825
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288