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in Science

I would appreciate some recommendations on texts (for a layperson -- a nonprofessional philosopher) whose subject is the philosophy of science.

December 19, 2006

Response from Thomas Pogge on December 20, 2006

Perhaps start with a look at the entry "scientific explanation" in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-explanation).

After that, I would get started with three classics:

Sir Karl Popper: The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1959)

Ernest Nagel: The Structure of Science: Problems in the Logic of Scientific Explanation (1961)

Thomas Kuhn: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1970).

Response from Andrew N. Carpenter on December 24, 2006

Paul Feyerabend's Against Method is extremely lively and interesting, those perhaps more challenging than the others on Thomas's list. If you are interested in an historical perspective, these two books are readable, interesting, and relatively concise: G.E.R. Lloyd, Early Greek Science; Herbert Butterfield, The Origins of Modern Science.


Response from Peter Smith on November 17, 2008
I'd start with some more modern books actually written for beginners, before tackling Popper, Nagel et al. Two that in my experience work well with students are Alan Chalmers' What is This Thing Called Science, and Alexander Bird's Philosophy of Science.
Response from William Rapaport on November 17, 2008
And I'll chime in with my favorite: Okasha, Samir (2002), Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press), which I think is a terrific survey and lives up to its title of being "very short". I'd also agree that it's probably best to look at a survey such as the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article, or something like Okasha's book, before diving into one of the classics.

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