Observation and Theory in Science (Thalheimer Lectures)

Nagel, Ernest Sylvain

Johns Hopkins University Press（2020/01発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 144 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9781421433257

Full Description

Originally published in 1971. The three contributions collected in this volume deal with different aspects of a single theme—the logical status of scientific theories in their relation to observation. These lectures, authored by different thinkers, treat this theme in connection with some controversies in the philosophy of science. A nonspecialist who reads these lectures should realize that the theme itself is a perennial one with an ancient lineage. It has concerned philosophers from the earliest era of philosophy on down through the centuries. A central philosophical issue at stake in the lectures is the question of whether scientific theories are testable in terms of our observations such that we can know whether some theories are true and others false. Although differing in their emphases, all three contributors seek a more plausible and nonskeptical philosophical account of the status of scientific theories in relation to observation.

Contents

Introduction
1. Theory and Observation
2. Science and the Forms of Ignorance
3. Can We Ascertain the Falsity of a Scientific Hypothesis?
An Appreciation
Index