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Science and Hypothesis

Historical Essays on Scientific Methodology

  • Book
  • © 1981

Overview

Authors:
  1. Larry Laudan

    1. University of Pittsburgh, USA

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Part of the book series: The Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science (WONS, volume 19)

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
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  2. Introduction

    • Larry Laudan
    Pages 1-5

  3. The Sources of Modern Methodology: Two Models of Change

    • Larry Laudan
    Pages 6-19

  4. A Revisionist Note on the Methodological Significance of Galilean Mechanics

    • Larry Laudan
    Pages 20-26

  5. The Clock Metaphor and Hypotheses: The Impact of Descartes on English Methodological Thought, 1650–1670

    • Larry Laudan
    Pages 27-58

  6. John Locke on Hypotheses: Placing the Essay in the ‘Scientific Tradition’

    • Larry Laudan
    Pages 59-71

  7. Hume (and Hacking) on Induction

    • Larry Laudan
    Pages 72-85

  8. Thomas Reid and the Newtonian Turn of British Methodological Thought

    • Larry Laudan
    Pages 86-110

  9. The Epistemology of Light: Some Methodological Issues in the Subtle Fluids Debate

    • Larry Laudan
    Pages 111-140

  10. Towards a Reassessment of Comte’s ‘Méthode Positive’

    • Larry Laudan
    Pages 141-162

  11. William Whewell on the Consilience of Inductions

    • Larry Laudan
    Pages 163-180

  12. Why was the Logic of Discovery Abandoned?

    • Larry Laudan
    Pages 181-191

  13. A Note on Induction and Probability in the 19th Century

    • Larry Laudan
    Pages 192-201

  14. Ernst Mach’s Opposition to Atomism

    • Larry Laudan
    Pages 202-225

  15. Peirce and the Trivialization of the Self-Corrective Thesis

    • Larry Laudan
    Pages 226-251

  16. Back Matter

    Pages 253-260
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Keywords

About this book

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.

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Pittsburgh, USA

    Larry Laudan

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Science and Hypothesis

  • Book Subtitle: Historical Essays on Scientific Methodology

  • Authors: Larry Laudan

  • Series Title: The Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7288-0

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1981

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-94-015-7290-3Published: 21 April 2014

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-015-7288-0Published: 17 April 2013

  • Series ISSN: 1566-659X

  • Series E-ISSN: 2215-1974

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 260

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, multidisciplinary

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