The Scientific Image

The Aim of 'The Scientific Image' is to develop an empiricist alternative to both logical positivism and scientific realism. The book presents three mutually supporting theories concerning science. The presentation of these three theses is preceded by two chapters which provide an informal introduction to current in the philosophy of science, particularly concerning scientific realism.

1. INTRODUCTION

1

(5)

2. ARGUMENTS CONCERNING SCIENTIFIC REALISM

6

(35)

1. Scientific Realism and Constructive Empiricism

6

(7)

1.1 Statement of Scientific Realism

6

(3)

1.2 Alternatives to Realism

9

(2)

1.3 Constructive Empiricism

11

(2)

2. The Theory/Observation `Dichotomy'

13

(6)

3. Inference to the Best Explanation

19

(4)

4. Limits of the Demand for Explanation

23

(2)

5. The Principle of the Common Cause

25

(6)

6. Limits to Explanation: a Thought Experiment

31

(3)

7. Demons and the Ultimate Argument

34

(7)

3. TO SAVE THE PHENOMENA

41

(29)

1. Models

41

(3)

2. Apparent Motion and Absolute Space

44

(2)

3. Empirical Content of Newton's Theory

46

(1)

4. Theories and their Extensions

47

(3)

5. Extensions: Victory and Qualified Defeat

50

(3)

6. Failure of the Syntactic Approach

53

(3)

7. The Hermeneutic Circle

56

(3)

8. Limits to Empirical Description

59

(5)

9. A New Picture of Theories

64

(6)

4. EMPIRICISM AND SCIENTIFIC METHODOLOGY

70

(27)

1. Empiricist Epistemology and Scepticism

71

(2)

2. Methodology and Experimental Design

73

(10)

2.1 The Roles of Theory

73

(1)

2.2 Measuring the Charge of the Electron

74

(3)

2.3 Boyd on the Philosophical Explanation of Methodology

77

(3)

2.4 Phenomenology of Scientific Activity

80

(3)

3. The Conjunction Objection

83

(4)

4. Pragmatic Virtues and Explanation

87

(10)

4.1 The Other Virtues

87

(2)

4.2 The Incursion of Pragmatics

89

(3)

4.3 Pursuit of Explanation

92

(5)

5. THE PRAGMATICS OF EXPLANATION

97

(61)

1. The Language of Explanation

97

(6)

1.1 Truth and Grammar

97

(4)

1.2 Some Examples

101

(2)

2. A Biased History

103

(27)

2.1 Hempel: Grounds for Belief

103

(3)

2.2 Salmon: Statistically Relevant Factors

106

(3)

2.3 Global Properties of Theories

109

(2)

2.4 The Difficulties: Asymmetries and Rejections

111

(1)

2.5 Causality: the Conditio Sine Qua Non

112

(6)

2.6 Causality: Salmon's Theory

118

(5)

2.7 The Clues of Causality

123

(3)

2.8 Why-questions

126

(3)

2.9 The Clues Elaborated

129

(1)

3. Asymmetries of Explanation: A Short Story

130

(4)

3.1 Asymmetry and Context: the Aristotelian Sieve

130

(2)

3.2 `The Tower and the Shadow'

132

(2)

4. A Model for Explanation

134

(19)

4.1 Contexts and Propositions

134

(3)

4.2 Questions

137

(4)

4.3 A Theory of Why-questions

141

(5)

4.4 Evaluation of Answers

146

(5)

4.5 Presupposition and Relevance Elaborated

151

(2)

5. Conclusion

153

(5)

6. PROBABILITY: THE NEW MODALITY OF SCIENCE

158

(46)

1. Statistics in General Science

159

(2)

2. Classical Statistical Mechanics

161

(8)

2.1 The Measure of Ignorance

161

(3)

2.2 Objective and Epistemic Probability Disentangled

164

(3)

2.3 The Intrusion of Infinity

167

(2)

3. Probability in Quantum Mechanics

169

(9)

3.1 The Disanalogies with the Classical Case

170

(5)

3.2 Quantum Probabilities as Conditional

175

(2)

3.3 Virtual Ensembles of Measurements

177

(1)

4. Towards an Empiricist Interpretation of Probability

178

(18)

4.1 Probability Spaces as Models of Experiments

178

(3)

4.2 The Strict Frequency Interpretation

181

(6)

4.3 Propensity and Virtual Sequences

187

(3)

4.4 A Modal Frequency Interpretation

190

(4)

4.5 Empirical Adequacy of Statistical Theories

194

(2)

5. Modality: Philosophical Retrenchment

196

(8)

5.1 Empiricism and Modality

196

(2)

5.2 The Language of Science

198

(3)

5.3 Modality without Metaphysics

201

(3)

7. GENTLE POLEMICS

204

(12)

NOTES

216

(15)

INDEX

231

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