Bøger i Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Science serien

One of the most pervasive and persistent questions in philosophy is the relationship between the natural sciences and traditional philosophical categories such as metaphysics, epistemology and the mind. This collection is a unique and valuable contribution to the literature on this issue.

This volume concentrates on particular issues addressed or raised in light of recent scholarship and without the pressure of the immediate concerns scholars had at the time of the Structure¿s publication. There has been extensive research on all of the major issues concerning the development of science which are discussed in Structure, work in which the scholars contributing to this volume have all been actively involved. In recent years they have pursued novel research on a number of topics relevant to Structure¿s concerns, such as the nature and function of concepts, the complexity of logical positivism and its legacy, the relation of history to philosophy of science, the character of scientific progress and rationality, and scientific realism, all of which are brought together and given new light in this text. In this way, our book makes new connections and undertakes new approaches in an effort to understand the Structure¿s significance in the canon of philosophy of science.

From Lucretius throwing a spear beyond the boundary of the universe to Einstein racing against a beam of light, thought experiments stand as a fascinating challenge to the necessity of data in the empirical sciences. Are these experiments, conducted uniquely in our imagination, simply rhetorical devices or communication tools or are they an essential part of scientific practice? This volume surveys the current state of the debate and explores new avenues of research into the epistemology of thought experiments.

The original essays in this volume help to clarify the concept of emrgence: inadequacies in some older formulations and arguments are exposed and new lines of argument on behalf the two visions are advanced.

Although scientific models and simulations differ in numerous ways, they are similar in so far as they are posing essentially philosophical problems about the nature of representation. This collection is designed to bring together some of the best work on the nature of representation being done by both established senior philosophers of science and younger researchers. Most of the pices, while appealing to existing traditions of scientific representation, explore new types of questions, such as: how understanding can be developed within computational science; how the format of representations matters for their use, be it for the purpose of research or education; how the concepts of emergence and supervenience can be further analyzed by taking into account computational science; or how the emphasis upon tractability--a particularly important issue in computational science--sheds new light on the philosophical analysis of scientific reasoning.

The only book that addresses Cartwright's undoubted influence on the study of the philosophy of science. This critical assessment contains contributions from Cartwright's champions and critics, including leading scholars in the field such as Ronald N. Giere and Paul Teller.

Investigates the workings of the mind through a variety of disciplines including the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mind, game theory, robotics and computational neuroanatomy. Topics covered range from general methodological issues to long-standing philosophical problems such as how rational human beings actually are.

The concept of emergence has seen a significant resurgence in philosophy and the sciences, yet debates regarding emergentist and reductionist visions of the natural world continue to be hampered by imprecision or ambiguity. This title explores inadequacies in some formulations and arguments.

Science is popularly understood as being an ideal of impartial algorithmic objectivity that provides a realistic description of the world. This book challenges this image, taking as their starting point that science trades not only in truth, but in fiction.

Aims to illuminate and contribute to the contemporary debate about causality in philosophy and science at a level accessible to the non-specialist. This book treats methodological issues alongside the philosophical ones.

Nancy Cartwright is one of the distinguished and influential contemporary philosophers of science. This book is devoted to a critical assessment of Cartwright's philosophy of science and contains contributions from Cartwright's champions and critics. It is suitable for philosophers of science the world over.