Some think that issues to do with scientific method are last century's stale debate; Popper was an advocate of methodology, but Kuhn, Feyerabend, and others are alleged to have brought the debate about its status to an end. The papers in this volume show that issues in methodology are still very much alive. Some of the papers reinvestigate issues in the debate over methodology, while others set out new ways in which the debate has developed in the last decade. The book will be of interest to philosophers and scientists alike in the reassessment it provides of earlier debates about method and...
Some think that issues to do with scientific method are last century's stale debate; Popper was an advocate of methodology, but Kuhn, Feyerabend, and ...
One of the hallmarks of the modern world has been the stunning rise of the natural sciences. The exponential expansion of scientific knowledge and the accompanying technology that so impact on our daily lives are truly remarkable. But what is often taken for granted is the enviable epistemic-credit rating of scientific knowledge: science is authoritative, science inspires confidence, science is right. Yet it has not always been so. In the seventeenth century the situation was markedly different: competing sources of authority, shifting disciplinary boundaries, emerging modes of experimental...
One of the hallmarks of the modern world has been the stunning rise of the natural sciences. The exponential expansion of scientific knowledge and the...
Alan Musgrave has consistently defended two positions that he regards as commonsensical - critical realism and critical rationalism. In defence of critcal realism he argues for the objective existence of the external world as opposed to idealism, as well as arguing for scientific realism against all anti-realist accounts of science. His critical rationalism is drawn from the work of Karl Popper and stands opposed to inductivist and irrationalist methodologies. In defence of these positions, Musgrave's writings have covered a wide range of topics in epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of...
Alan Musgrave has consistently defended two positions that he regards as commonsensical - critical realism and critical rationalism. In defence of ...
The aim of this book is to explore and understand the activities undertaken by the Florentine Accademia del Cimento, one of Europe's first scientific societies. The Cimento operated for ten years, between 1657 and 1667, and during that time performed many experiments and observations in physics and astronomy, rivalling the achievements of the Royal Society of London and the Parisian Academie Royale des Sciences. This book will attempt to sift through the ava- able primary evidence, as well as secondary accounts of the Cimento's activities, in order to examine the intellectual concerns that...
The aim of this book is to explore and understand the activities undertaken by the Florentine Accademia del Cimento, one of Europe's first scientific ...
Fluid Mechanics, as a scientific discipline in a modern sense, was established between the last third of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th one. This book analyses its genesis, following its evolution along two basic lines of research, which have been named the "problem of resistance" and the "problem of discharge." This approach highlights the existence of a remarkable experimental aspect in the aforementioned research lines, together with their link with problems of a practical nature, such as ballistics, hydraulics, fluid-using machines or naval theory. On the other hand,...
Fluid Mechanics, as a scientific discipline in a modern sense, was established between the last third of the 17th century and the first half of the...
Walter Charleton is an intriguing character--he flits through the diaries of Pepys and Evelyn, the correspondence of Margaret Cavendish, and his texts appear in the libraries of better-known contemporaries. We catch sight of him 1 conversing with Pepys about teeth, arguing with Inigo Jones about the origin of 2 Stonehenge, being lampooned in contemporary satire, stealing from the Royal Society, and embarrassing himself in anatomical procedures. While extremely active in a broad range of Royal Society investigations, his main discovery there seems to have been that tadpoles turned into frogs....
Walter Charleton is an intriguing character--he flits through the diaries of Pepys and Evelyn, the correspondence of Margaret Cavendish, and his texts...
There is no sharp dividing line between the foundations of physics and philosophy of physics. This is especially true for quantum mechanics. The debate on the interpretation of quantum mechanics has raged in both the scientific and philosophical communities since the 1920s and continues to this day. (We shall understand the unqualified term 'quantum mechanics' to mean the mathematical formalism, i. e. laws and rules by which empirical predictions and theoretical advances are made. ) There is a popular rendering of quantum mechanics which has been publicly endorsed by some well known...
There is no sharp dividing line between the foundations of physics and philosophy of physics. This is especially true for quantum mechanics. The debat...
Pre-modern and early modern conceptions of Scientia differ systematically from one another. This book offers a variety of glimpses of this difference by exploring the works of individual philosophers as well as philosophical movements and groupings.
Pre-modern and early modern conceptions of Scientia differ systematically from one another. This book offers a variety of glimpses of this differen...
Australia and New Zealand boast an active community of scholars working in the field of history, philosophy and social studies of science. - Australasian Studies in History and Philosophy of Science' aims to provide a distinctive publication outlet for their work. Each volume comprises a group of essays on a connected theme, edited by an Australian or a New Zealander with special expertise in that particular area .. In each volume, a majority of the contributors is from Australia or New Zealand. O;mtributions from elsewhere are by no means ruled out, however, and are indeed actively...
Australia and New Zealand boast an active community of scholars working in the field of history, philosophy and social studies of science. - Australas...
The essays in this volume of the Australasian Studies in History and Philosophy of Science series are devoted to the subjects of natural kinds, scientific methodology and laws of nature. There is a multiplicity of interconnections to be found between the various issues that arise under these broad subjects. Examples of these issues include: the nature of physical laws; the basic entities that we can expect the world to consist of; the problem of induction; the aim(s) of science; the discovery of natural laws through scientific methods; natural necessity and its status; etc. Each contribution...
The essays in this volume of the Australasian Studies in History and Philosophy of Science series are devoted to the subjects of natural kinds, scient...
