Description
Chalmers (philosophy of science, U. Sydney, Australia) offers this exposition of the philosophy and history of science and the scientific method, suitable as both a beginner's introduction to the concept of science and a critical analysis of assumptions for seasoned researchers. The relationship between observations, experiments, facts, and theories is interrogated, and the logical processes of induction and falsification are characterized. Falsificationism is particularly explored in-depth including its limits, and several philosophical viewpoints on the nature of theories and the nature of scientific knowledge are presented. The establishment of mathematical astrophysics via Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton serves as a background for much of the discussion, but advances up through the early twentieth century are included as examples of method. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Co-published with the University of Queensland Press. HPC holds rights in North America and U. S. Dependencies.Since its first publication in 1976, Alan Chalmers's highly regarded and widely read work--translated into eighteen languages--has become a classic introduction to the scientific method, known for its accessibility to beginners and its value as a resource for advanced students and scholars.In addition to overall improvements and updates inspired by Chalmers's experience as a teacher, comments from his readers, and recent developments in the field, this fourth edition features an extensive chapter-long postscript that draws on his research into the history of atomism to illustrate important themes in the philosophy of science. Identifying the qualitative difference between knowledge of atoms as it figures in contemporary science and metaphysical speculations about atoms common in philosophy since the time of Democritus offers a revealing and instructive way to address the question at the heart of this groundbreaking work: What is this thing called science?
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