Knowing the Structure of Nature: Essays on Realism and Explanation

ISBN-13: 9780230007116 / Angielski / Twarda / 2009 / 230 str.

Stathis Psillo

Opis

In this sequel to the highly acclaimed Scientific Realism: How Science Tracks Truth, Psillos discusses recent developments in scientific realism and explores realist theses and commitments. He examines the structuralist turn in the philosophy of science and offers a framework within which inference to the best explanation can be defended.

Spis treści

Preface Introduction PART I: SCIENTIFIC REALISM The Present State of the Scientific Realism Debate Scientific Realism and Metaphysics Thinking About the Ultimate Argument for Realism Against Neo-Instrumentalism Tracking the Real: Through Thick and Thin Cartwright's Realist Toil: From Entities to Capacities PART II: STRUCTURAL REALISM Is Structural Realism Possible? The Structure, the Whole Structure and Nothing but the Structure? Ramsey's Ramsey-sentences PART III: INFERENCE TO THE BEST EXPLANATION Simply the Best: A Case for Abduction Inference to the Best Explanation and Bayesianism Notes References Index

O autorze

STATHIS PSILLOS is Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Athens, Greece. He is the author of Scientific Realism: How Science Tracks Truth (1999), Causation and Explanation (2002) and Philosophy of Science A-Z (2007). He edited with Martin Curd The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science, (2008). He has published over sixty articles in various areas in the philosophy of science. In 2007, he was elected President of the European Philosophy of Science Association (EPSA).