This text has one distinctive feature: It combines an elementary introduction to philosophy of science with an integrated survey of all important subfields of contemporary philosophy of science. This twofold characteristic is reflected in the bipartite structure of all chapters,…
This volume is based on the lectures given in The Royal Institute of Philosophy's annual lecture series in London for 2005-6. In it leading figures in the philosophy of science focus on key topics in the subject: realism, natural kinds, scientific progress, the confirmation of t…
The world around us seems to be a complex place. But, as John Gribbin explains, chaos and complexity obey simple laws - essentially, the same straightforward principles that Isaac Newton discovered more than 300 years ago.
Science as practice and culture
"Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, the nation's foremost expert in the new science of networks, takes us on an intellectual adventure to prove that social networks, corporations, and living organisms are more similar than previously thought. A full understanding of network science will so…
Critical theory and methodology
by Brown, David D, Morrow, Raymond A.
fromContemporary social theory
Philosophy of science: the central issues
"Knowledge is a big subject, says Stuart Firestein, but ignorance is a bigger one. And it is ignorance--not knowledge--that is the true engine of science. Most of us have a false impression of science as a surefire, deliberate, step-by-step method for finding things out and gett…
In Seeing Things, Robert Hudson assesses a common way of arguing about observation reports called "robustness reasoning." Robustness reasoning claims that an observation report is more likely to be true if the report is produced by multiple, independent sources. Seeing Things ar…
"Roald Hoffmann's contributions to chemistry are well known; this Nobel laureate has published more than 500 articles and two books. As an "applied theoretical chemist," he has made significant contributions to our understanding of chemical bonding and reactivity, and taught two…
