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Title: What Is This Thing Called Science? by Alan F. Chalmers ISBN: 0-87220-452-9 Publisher: Hackett Publishing Co. Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.56 (9 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: What is this thing called Philosophy of Science?
Comment: "Philosophy of science ... pointlessly scholastic activity which is liable to confuse the budding scientist" - Matthew Stewart, 'The Truth about Everything'.
Once upon a time, the wisest men in the land turned their thoughts to the vexed question of how it is possible for farriers to shoe horses (actually, what they asked was: in what sense, if any, is it meaningful to say that 'farriers' 'shoe' 'horses'?). Some said that you nail specially shaped lumps of iron on the extremities located at the four corners, and if one drops off you replace it with another, hopefully longer-lasting; but this was dismissed by almost all the wise men as too pedestrian for words.
One of the wise men won fame by pointing out that there was a time when people got by without ever shoeing their horses. Those people, he said, would have been quite unable to perceive why the moderns put dead weights on their horses' hooves (even though, of course, they were just as smart as us). This was called the incomprehensibility of paranickels. It was received with jubilation throughout the land, especially by those who thought that shoeing horses was rather a vulgar business, boringly technical and probably involving difficult sums; now they knew the secret and didn't have to bother.
Another wise man made his name by questioning how far the farriers could be said to be shoeing horses at all. Perhaps, he speculated, they and their customers only think that's what they're doing, or agree among themselves to say so; anyway, nailing shoes to horses' heads ought to work just as well.
The greatest influence on cultured folk came from radical thinkers who doubted whether there were such things as 'horses' and 'horseshoes'; or, if by chance there were, whether 'shoeing horses' might not be better characterized as 'horsing shoes'. This was agreed by one and all to be clever and humorous and (because it was written mostly in French) deep as well.
By this time, since it was clear that a learned consensus on the farriers' art was nowhere in sight, it was suspected by some of the wise men, and by many who had caught snatches of the argument, that the farriers must be doing something wrong. This was called the epistemological crisis of the post-Enlightenment ferrous hegemony, and before long it was received wisdom in all the land. Simple country pomos would tell you about it at the drop of a hat. The farriers found this exasperating. One reportedly said that a philosophy of horse-shoeing is about as useful to farriers as ornithology is to birds. But he was a bongo-player and part-time Nobel laureate; that was just the kind of thing he said.
As to this book, it is nicely written and provides a solid, readable if uninspired introduction to the current state of play. Many readers will find it useful for filling in the background, bringing the story up to date, and yielding quality material for cocktail-party conversations. It is best read in conjunction with the same author's 'Science and Its Fabrication'. Of course, you must also read the wise men's original works (don't worry, we're not talking Wittgenstein here). But whatever you do, younkers, never go near a smithy: to this day, the farriers can still be seen there shamelessly nailing on lumps of iron, just as they always did.
Rating: 5
Summary: Introduction to the Scientific Method
Comment: Chalmers's book is the widely read and well-received classical and basic introduction to the epistemology of science. Though this book has important insights that can be applied to the quantitative studies in social science, it is essentially an introduction to the philosophy of natural sciences.
Basic concepts and important thinkers are dealt with in order in separate chapters and at the end of each chapter a critique is provided and entries for further reading are provided. The latest edition of the book includes an extensive chapter on Feyerabend and his radical agenda.
Besides this the themes covered in the book include observation, experiment, induction, falsification, Kuhn, Popper, Bayes, realism and anti-realism.
It is a handy reference work for graduate students and scholars alike who would like to know more about the selection process of hypotheses, how and why hypotheses can be rejected, how important a framework is for any "scientific" research, what it means to have a paradigm shift et cetera. All in all, it is a seminal introduction to the scientific method.
Rating: 5
Summary: A primer for skeptics
Comment: This is an excellent text for skeptics to obtain a grasp on the state of the art in the modern philosophy of science. It provides rather more detail than many people will require but it does indicate clearly how the old "positivist" philosophy of science did not really work, and it provides a good survey of the more up to date ideas in the field. Chalmers is especially helpful in showing the limitations of Kuhn and providing a balanced perspective on Popper, Lakatos and Feyerabend.
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Title: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn ISBN: 0226458083 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: November, 1996 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge: Volume 4 : Proceedings of the International Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science, London, 1965 by Imre Lakatos, Alan Musgrave ISBN: 0521096235 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 02 September, 1970 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Logic of Scientific Discovery (Routledge Classics) by Karl Popper ISBN: 0415278449 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 29 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Ascent of Science by Brian L. Silver ISBN: 0195134273 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: April, 2000 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach by Karl R. Popper ISBN: 0198750242 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: November, 1972 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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