| Science and Hypothesis: Historical Essays on Scientific Methodology 1981 Edition Contributor(s): Laudan, Larry (Author) |
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ISBN: 9401572909 ISBN-13: 9789401572903 Publisher: Springer OUR PRICE: $52.24 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 2014 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Science - Reference - Non-classifiable |
| Dewey: 050 |
| Series: The Western Ontario Philosophy of Science |
| Physical Information: 0.58" H x 6" W x 9" (0.82 lbs) 260 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This book consists of a collection of essays written between 1965 and 1981. Some have been published elsewhere; others appear here for the first time. Although dealing with different figures and different periods, they have a common theme: all are concerned with examining how the method of hy- pothesis came to be the ruling orthodoxy in the philosophy of science and the quasi-official methodology of the scientific community. It might have been otherwise. Barely three centuries ago, hypothetico- deduction was in both disfavor and disarray. Numerous rival methods for scientific inquiry - including eliminative and enumerative induction, analogy and derivation from first principles - were widely touted. The method of hypothesis, known since antiquity, found few proponents between 1700 and 1850. During the last century, of course, that ordering has been inverted and - despite an almost universal acknowledgement of its weaknesses - the method of hypothesis (usually under such descriptions as 'hypothetico- deduction' or 'conjectures and refutations') has become the orthodoxy of the 20th century. Behind the waxing and waning of the method of hypothesis, embedded within the vicissitudes of its fortunes, there is a fascinating story to be told. It is a story that forms an integral part of modern science and its philosophy. |