An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science

Stimulating, thought-provoking text by one of the 20th century's most creative philosophers clearly and discerningly makes accessible such topics as probability, measurement and quantitative language, structure of space, causality and determinism, theoretical laws and concepts, and much more.

Foreword to the Dover Edition
Foreword to the Basic Books paperback edition
Preface
"PART I Laws, Explanation, and Probability"
1 The Value of Laws: Explanation and Prediction
2 Induction and Statistical Probability
3 Induction and Logical Probability
4 The Experimental Method
PART II Measurement and Quantitative Language
5 Three Kinds of Concepts in Science
6 The Measurement of Quantitative Concepts
7 Extensive Magnitudes
8 Time
9 Length
10 Derived Magnitudes and the Quantitative Language
11 Merits of the Quantitative Method
12 The Magic View of Language
PART III The Structure of Space
13 Euclid's Parallel Postulate
14 Non-Euclidean Geometrics
15 Poincaré versus Einstein
16 Space in Relativity Theory
17 Advantages of Non-Euclidean Physical Geometry
18 Kant's Synthetic A Priori
PART IV Causality and Determinism
19 Causality
20 Does Causality Imply Necessity?
21 The Logic of Causal Modalities
22 Determinism and Free Will
PART V Theoretical Laws and Theoretical Concepts
23 Theories and Nonobservables
24 Correspondence Rules
25 How New Empirical Laws Are Derived from Theoretical Laws
26 The Ramsey Sentence
27 Analyticity in an Observation Language
28 Analyticity in a Theoretical Language
PART VI Beyond Determinism
29 Statistical Laws
30 Indeterminism in Quantum Physics
Bibliography
Index