Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues

This book was recommended as essential reading to accompany The Teaching Company's course "Philosophy of Science". It covered many of the issues presented in the course. The book is an introduction to the current issues. The arguments are well thought out and presented clearly. It appears that there is no 'Look inside' feature so here is a peak at the high level contents 1. Science and Pseudoscience 2. Rationality, Objectivity, and Values in Science 3. The Duhem-Quine thesis and Underdetermination 4. Induction, Prediction, and Evidence 5. Confirmation and Relevance: Bayesian Approaches 6. Models of Explanation 7. Laws of Nature 8. Intertheoretic Reduction 9. Empiricism and Scientific Realism I should also add that the book has an introduction and to each of the above sections. Each section is followed by a commentary of each article therein. Finally, the book has a glossary, name index, and subject index.

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Great anthology and survey of significant works in the field of Phil of Sci. This book has inspired me to look into Thomas Kuhn's contributions to the field. Kuhn is a sloppy writer and easy to critique [as this book shows], however, he has some 'revolutionary' ideas [no pun intended] as to the nature of paradigm shift in the scientific community. The book gives bits of other great works from such people as Hemple, Laudan, and even Popper. Highly recommended if you are looking for a survey of works in the field of Philosophy of Science.

Actually, I didn't get this book via Amazon....I ordered, but it turned out that the book had been sold already, so I was able to get it at another online site. The book itself is good - the reading material that is, but the paper this book is printed on is CRAP. It is very thin and you can see the text on the backside through on the front side. UGH! hard to read. Wish it came in hardback.

Great rental; interesting book! Took a class that used this as its textbook. I am a chemistry major and thought philosophy of science (an option for a general education class under the critical thinking requirements for graduation) would be an interesting option. If you consider yourself science oriented, this class will challenge your beliefs. Book is worded towards philosophy majors or people that have already attained their degrees.

Used this book for an undergraduate philosophy of science course. The volume contains a large number of extremely seminal papers with an accessibility that ranges from the relatively easy (e.g. Hempel's D-N model) to more difficult works (e.g. Quine's Two Dogmas). As a collection of historically relevant philosophy of science papers, you certainly cannot go wrong with this choice.

I’m sucked into the vortex. Confirmation is cheap. Falsifiability doesn’t prove anything. Science isn’t special. The scientific method is a sham. Grue is real. Laudan has a point. Descartes evil deceiver is just an example of underdetermination.

There are more essays in here than we could fit into one semester, and each one can serve as a month's lesson. It's held up pretty well for the amount of use and abuse I've put into it, but it would be better if it was a hardcover. Even if you're not taking a PH class and you're just curious about the underlying philosophy of the scientific method then this book is for you.