John Losee provides a balanced and engaging survey of the development of views about scientific method. Ideal for those coming to the subject for the first time, this new edition incorporates discussion on contemporary debates, including philosophy of biology, normative naturalism, theory appraisal, experimental practice, and scientific realism.

Introduction 1. Aristotle's Philosophy of Science 2. The Pythagorean Orientation 3. The Ideal of Deductive Systemization 4. Atomism and the Concept of Underlying Mechanism 5. Affirmation and Development of Aristotle's Method in the Medieval Period 6. The Debate over Saving the Appearances 7. The Seventeenth-Century Attack on Aristotelian Philosophy 8. Newton's Axiomatic Method 9. Analysis of the Implications of the New Science for a Theory of Scientific Method 10. Inductivism v the Hypothetico-Deductive View of Science 11. Mathematical Positivism and Conventionlism 12. Logical Reconstructivist Philosophy of Science 13. Orthodoxy under Attack 14. Theories of Scientific Progress 15. Explanation, Causation, and Unification 16. Confirmation and Evidential Support 17. The Justification of Evaluative Standards 18. The Debate over Scientific Realism 19. Descriptive Philosophies of Science Bibliography Index

John Losee , Professor of Philosophy, Lafayette College

`well known and widely used textbook ... As in the earlier editions the same writing style and format for organizing the material are preserved. As a result the book rigidly stays at the level of presenting only carefully condensed factual presentations in serial order of the individual authors involved, and scrupulously avoids any critical evaluations or comparisons of the philosophies of science sketched out for the reader.' Richard J. Blackwell, Saint Louis University, Physis, Vol. XXI (1994) |d 19/05/1995