Perception and Discovery: An Introduction to Scientific Inquiry

ISBN-13: 9783030099084 / Angielski / Miękka / 2018 / 339 str.

Norwood Russell Hanson; Matthew D. Lund

Spis treści

Introduction

Part 1. Provocations and Restraints

1. On Philosophizing—and Some Logical Distinctions

2. Defining Conceptual Boundaries

3. Measuring and Counting: More Boundaries

Part 2. The Act of Scientific Seeing

4. There Is More to Seeing than Meets the Eye

5. Seeing the Same Thing

6. Seeing and Seeing As

7. Seeing As and Seeing That

8. Seeing, Saying, and Knowing

9. Spectacles behind the Eyes

10. Can We See Facts?

11. Facts and Seeing That

Part 3. Perplexity: the Process of Experimental Research

12. Waves, Particles, and Facts

13. Hypotheses Facta Fingunt

14. Scientific Simplicity and Crucial Experiments

15. The Systematic Side of Science

16. Discovering Causes and Becauses

17. What Happens as a Rule

18. Theory-Laden Language

19. The Scientists’ Toolbox

20. Laws, Truths, and Hypotheses

21. Principles as Platitudes

Part 4. Probability and Probable Reasoning in Science

22. Frequencies and the Mathematics of Probability

23. Using and Interpreting the Probability Calculus

24. Elements of Statistical Technique

25. The Principle of Uniformity Revisited

Editor’s Epilogue

Index

Blurb

Norwood Russell Hanson was one of the most important philosophers of science of the post-war period. Hanson brought Wittgensteinian ordinary language philosophy to bear on the concepts of science, and his treatments of observation, discovery, and the theory-ladenness of scientific facts remain central to the philosophy of science. Additionally, Hanson was one of philosophy’s great personalities, and his sense of humor and charm come through fully in the pages of Perception and Discovery.

Perception and Discovery, originally published in 1969, is Hanson’s posthumous textbook in philosophy of science. The book focuses on the indispensable role philosophy plays in scientific thinking. Perception and Discovery  features Hanson’s most complete and mature account of theory-laden observation, a discussion of conceptual and logical boundaries, and a detailed treatment of the epistemological features of scientific research and scientific reasoning. This book is of interest to scholars of philosophy of science, particularly those concerned with Hanson’s thought and the development of the discipline in the middle of the 20^th century. However, even fifty years after Hanson’s early death, Perception and Discovery still has a great deal to offer all readers interested in science.