The Metaphysics of Science. An Account of Modern Science in Terms of Principles, Laws and Theories. Second edition

Dilworth, Craig

ISBN 10: 140206327X / ISBN 13: 9781402063275

Published by Springer, Dordrecht, 2009

About this Item

xvi + 333 pp. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 173.

Seller Inventory # 34866

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Metaphysics of Science. An Account of Modern Science in Terms of Principles, Laws and Theories. Second edition
• Publisher: Springer, Dordrecht
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 140206327X
• ISBN 13: 9781402063275
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 2nd Edition
• Condition: As new
• Book Type: book
• Seller catalogs:
  • Science

About this title

Synopsis

The roots of this work lie in my earlier book, Scientific Progress, which first appeared in 1981. One of its topics, the distinction - tween scientific laws and theories, is there treated with reference to the same distinction as drawn by N. R. Campbell in his Physics: The Elements. Shortly after completing Scientific Progress, I read Rom Harré’s The Principles of Scientific Thinking, in which the concept of theory is even more clearly delineated than in Campbell, being directly connected to the notion of a model – as it was in my book. In subsequent considerations regarding science, Harré’s work thus - came my main source of inspiration with regard to theories, while Campbell’s remained my main source with respect to empirical laws. Around the same time I also read William Whewell’s Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences. In this work, Whewell depicts principles as playing a central role in the formation of science, and conceives of them in much the same way as Kant conceives of fundamental synthetic a priori judgements. The idea that science should have principles as a basic element immediately made sense to me, and from that time I have thought of science in terms of laws, theories and principles.

About the Author

Craig Dilworth, born and raised in Canada, received his PhD in Sweden in 1981. He is presently Reader in Theoretical Philosophy at Uppsala University. While he is fundamentally a philosopher, Dilworth is at the same time a true generalist. He has been engaged in a wide variety of environmental projects on the local level, while at the same time developing his intellectual interests in the philosophy of science, human ecology, theoretical physics, theoretical biology, and the social sciences. He is the author of two major works in the philosophy of science, Scientific Progress and The Metaphysics of Science, and an earlier book in environmental science, Sustainable Development and Decision Making. He has spent the past 15 years researching the present book.