ABSTRACT

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.

part |237 pages

Debates

chapter |12 pages

Bayesianism

chapter |10 pages

Empiricism

chapter |12 pages

Experiment

chapter |11 pages

Explanation

chapter |10 pages

Laws of Nature

chapter |11 pages

Naturalism

chapter |11 pages

Scientific Method

chapter |10 pages

Underdetermination

part |213 pages

Concepts

chapter |10 pages

Causation

chapter |10 pages

Determinism

chapter |12 pages

Evidence

chapter |9 pages

Function

chapter |9 pages

Idealization

chapter |9 pages

Mechanisms

chapter |11 pages

Models

chapter |9 pages

Observation

chapter |9 pages

Prediction

chapter |10 pages

Pseudoscience

chapter |11 pages

Reduction

chapter |16 pages

Space and Time

chapter |10 pages

Symmetry

chapter |11 pages

Truthlikeness

chapter |9 pages

Unification

part |110 pages

Individual Sciences

chapter |11 pages

Biology

chapter |11 pages

Chemistry

chapter |12 pages

Cognitive Science

chapter |12 pages

Cosmology

chapter |12 pages

Economics

chapter |12 pages

Mathematics

chapter |14 pages

Physics

chapter |13 pages

Psychology

chapter |11 pages

Social Sciences