The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science (Routledge Philosophy Companions)

__The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science__ is an indispensable reference source and guide to the major themes, debates, problems and topics in philosophy of science. It contains sixty-two specially commissioned entries by a leading team of international contributors. Organized into four parts it covers: * __historical and philosophical context__ * __debates__ * __concepts__ * __the individual sciences.__ __The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science__ addresses all of the essential topics that students of philosophy of science need to know - from empiricism, explanation and experiment to causation, observation, prediction and more - and contains many helpful features including chapters on individual sciences (such as biology, chemistry, physics and psychology), further reading and cross-referencing at the end of each chapter. Expanded and revised throughout, this second edition includes new chapters on Conventionalism, Social Epistemology, Computer Simulation, Thought Experiments, Pseudoscience, Species and Taxonomy, and Cosmology. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 8 Copyright Page 9 Table of Contents 10 List of illustrations 14 Notes on contributors 15 Introduction 24 Part I: Historical and philosophical context 34 1. Conventionalism 36 2. The epistemology of science after Quine 48 3. The history of philosophy and the philosophy of science 60 4. Metaphysics 71 5. Philosophy of language 81 6. The role of logic in philosophy of science 92 7. Critical rationalism 103 8. The historical turn in the philosophy of science 112 9. Logical empiricism 123 10. Pragmatism and science 136 11. Social epistemology 145 Part II: Debates 154 12. Bayesianism 156 13. Computer simulation 168 14. Confirmation 179 15. Empiricism 193 16. Essentialism and natural kinds 203 17. Ethics of science 214 18. Experiment 224 19. Explanation 236 20. The feminist approach to the philosophy of science 247 21. Inference to the best explanation 258 22. Laws of nature 268 23. Naturalism 278 24. Realism/anti-realism 289 25. Relativism about science 301 26. Scientific method 313 27. Social studies of science 324 28. The structure of theories 334 29. Theory-change in science 346 30. Thought experiments 357 31. Underdetermination 369 32. Values in science 379 Part III: Concepts 392 33. Causation 394 34. Determinism 404 35. Evidence 414 36. Function 426 37. Idealization 435 38. Measurement 444 39. Mechanisms 453 40. Models 462 41. Observation 473 42. Prediction 482 43. Probability 491 44. Pseudoscience 502 45. Reduction 512 46. Representation in science 523 47. Scientific discovery 530 48. Space and time 540 49. Species and taxonomy 556 50. Symmetry 564 51. Truthlikeness 574 52. Unification 585 53. The virtues of a good theory 594 Part IV: Individual sciences 606 54. Biology 608 55. Chemistry 619 56. Cognitive science 630 57. Cosmology 642 58. Economics 654 59. Mathematics 666 60. Physics 678 61. Psychology 692 62. Social sciences 705 Index 716 The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science is an indispensable reference source and guide to the major themes, debates, problems and topics in philosophy of science. It contains sixty-two specially commissioned entries by a leading team of international contributors. Organized into four parts it covers: historical and philosophical context debates concepts the individual sciences. The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science addresses all of the essential topics that students of philosophy of science need to know - from empiricism, explanation and experiment to causation, observation, prediction and more - and contains many helpful features including chapters on individual sciences (such as biology, chemistry, physics and psychology), further reading and cross-referencing at the end of each chapter. Expanded and revised throughout, this second edition includes new chapters on Conventionalism, Social Epistemology, Computer Simulation, Thought Experiments, Pseudoscience, Species and Taxonomy, and Cosmology -- Provided by Publisher This indispensable reference source and guide to the major themes, debates, problems and topics in philosophy of science contains over sixty specially commissioned entries by a leading team of international contributors.