内容

目次

Part 1 Science as an intellectual activity: growth of knowledge;objectivity and the external world; prediction and explanation. Part 2Induction: Baconian induction; presuppositionless observation; the roleof imagination in scientific theorizing; inductive proof. Part 3Falsification: Popperian philosophy of science; a Bayesian approach.Part 4 Science and non-science: the demarcation criterion; are theoriesever falsified?; Kuhnian relativism; the relationship between thehistory and philosophy of science. Part 5 Observation and theory:observational common ground between theories; observation and theory;empiricism; unobservability and underdetermination of theory by data.Part 6 Scientific realism: positivism; the inference to bestexplanation; scientific laws and the representation of reality; theabsolute view of the world; partial pictures - Schrodinger's cat. Part7 Probability: probabilistic explanations; interpretations ofprobability. Part 8 Scientific reductions: reductions in the physicalsciences; criteria for reduction. Part 9 Science and culture: scienceas mythology; myths and science; science and technology; science andvalue.