Readings in the Philosophy of Science : From Positivism to Postmodernism

1. SCIENCE AND NONSCIENCE: DEFINING THE BOUNDARY

A. J. Ayer, “The Elimination of Metaphysics” / Karl R. Popper, “Science: Conjectures and Refutations,” / Thomas S. Kuhn, “Logic of Discovery or Psychology of Research?” / Imre Lakatos, “Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programs” / Larry Laudan: “Science at the Bar—Causes for Concern” / Michael Ruse, “Pro Judice”

2. INDUCTION AND CONFIRMATION: THE NATURE OF SCIENTIFIC INFERENCE

David Hume, “The Problem of Induction” / Carl Hempel, “The Role of Induction in Scientific Inquiry” / Karl Popper, “The Problem of Induction” / Pierre Duhem, “Physical Theory and Experiment” / Peter Lipton, “Contrastive Inference,”

3. LAWS AND EXPLANATION: THE NATURE OF SCIENTIFIC THEORIES

Carl G. Hempel, “Laws and Their Role in Scientific Explanations” / Wesley Salmon, “Why ask ‘Why?’” / Bas van Fraasen, “The Pragmatics of Explanation” / Philip Kitcher, “Explanatory Unification” / Merilee H. Salmon, “Explanation in the Social Sciences”

4. THE UNITY OF SCIENCE: ARE ALL SCIENCES REDUCIBLE TO PHYSICS?

Paul Oppenheim and Hilary Putnam, “Unity of Science as a Working Hypothesis” / Jerry Fodor, “Special Sciences” / L. Darden and N.L. Maull, “Interfield Theories” / John Dupré, “The Disunity of Science” / George A. Reisch: “Pluralism, Logical Empiricism, and the Problem of Pseudoscience”

5. THEORY AND OBSERVATION: IS SEEING BELIEVING?

Rudolph Carnap, “The Methodological Character of Theoretical Concepts” / Mary Hesse, “Is There an Independent Observation Language?” / N. R. Hanson, “Observation” / Thomas S. Kuhn, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” / Larry Laudan, “A Problem-Solving Approach to Scientific Progress”

6. SCIENCE AND OBJECTIVITY: THE SCIENCE WARS

Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, ” The Social Construction of Scientific Facts” / Stephen Cole, “Voodoo Sociology: Recent Developments in the Sociology of Science” / Sandra Harding, “Should the History and Philosophy of Science be X-Rated?” / Alan Soble, “In Defense of Bacon” / Janet Sayers, “Feminism and Science” / Janet Radcliffe Richards, “Why Feminist Epistemology Isn’t”

7. REALISM AND ANTIREALISM: DOES SCIENCE REVEAL REALITY?

Grover Maxwell, “The Ontological Status of Theoretical Entities” / Bas C. van Fraasen, “Constructive Empiricism” / Paul M. Churchland, “The Anti-Realist Epistemology of Van Fraasen’s ‘The Scientific Image’” / Ian Hacking, “Experimentation and Scientific Realism” / Arthur Fine, “The Natural Ontological Attitude” / James Robert Brown, “Explaining the Success of Science”

8. SCIENCE AND RELIGION: REASON VS. FAITH

Paul Feyerabend, “Science and Myth” / Richard Dawkins, “Is Science a Religion?” / Alvin Plantinga, “When Faith and Reason Clash: Evolution and the Bible” / Ernan McMullin, “Evolution and Special Creation” / Peter Atkins, “Purposeless People” / Martin Gardner, “Science and the Unknowable”

9. CONTEMPORARY ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS

Philosophy of Physics / Guy Vandegrift, “Bell’s Theorem and Psychic Phenomena” / Victor J. Stenger, “The Unconscious Quantum” / Philosophy of Biology / Stephen Jay Gould, “Sociobiology and the Theory of Natural Selection” / Arthur L. Caplan, “Say it Just Ain’t So: Adaptational Stories and Sociobiological Explanations of Social Behavior” / Philosophy of Psychology / Robert H. Thouless, “Parapsychology During the Last Quarter of a Century” / Daisie Radner and Michael Radner, “Parapsychology: Pre-Paradigm Science?”

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