What Is This Thing Called Science?

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?

1132079021
What Is This Thing Called Science?

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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What Is This Thing Called Science?

What Is This Thing Called Science?

by Alan F. Chalmers
What Is This Thing Called Science?

What Is This Thing Called Science?

by Alan F. Chalmers

eBookFourth Edition (Fourth Edition)

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Overview

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?


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781624662225
Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Publication date: 09/15/2013
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 304
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

Alan Chalmers is Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, where he has taught since 1971.

Table of Contents

Prefaces

Introduction

 1.  Science and Knowledge Derived from the Facts of Experience

 2.  Observation as Practical Intervention

 3.  Experiment

 4.  Deriving Facts from Theories: Induction

 5.  Introducing Falsificationism

 6.  Sophisticated Falsificationism; Novel Predictions and the Growth of Knowledge

 7.  The Limitations of Falsificationism

 8.  Theories as Structures I: Kuhn's Paradigms

 9.  Theories as Structures II: Research Programs

10. Feyerabend's Anarchistic Theory of Science

11. Methodical Changes in Method

12. The Bayesian Approach

13. The New Experimentalism

14. Why Should the World Obey Laws?

15. Realism and Antirealism

Bibliography

Index

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