Skip to main content

Universal Aspects of Scientific Practice: Commitment, Methodology, and Technique

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

  • Offers a new perspective on the practice of science
  • Reveals philosophical and historical insights into the nature of scientific knowledge
  • Illustrates distinctly the three salient features of scientific practice, namely commitment, methodology, and technique

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Philosophy (BRIEFSPHILOSOPH)

  • 106 Accesses

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (3 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

This book provides a unique contribution to philosophy of science from the perspective of the practice of science. It focuses on processes that generate scientific knowledge and seeks general and universal features that characterize scientific practice; features that are inherent to the practice of science. Science is an activity, and the scientist is an agent who pursues some practice, which in one way or another engages evidence. In science, claims to knowledge are typically supported by argument that engages evidence at some point in explanation, in prediction, or indeed in any mode of presenting data and its interpretation. Thus, the practice of science includes at least three elements so that an argument can be formulated: presuppositions, modes of inference, and consequences that relate to evidence. The authors discuss in detail eight cases in chronological order with which they illustrate how commitment, methodology, and technique come into play in the practice of an individual physicist or a group of researchers in the physical sciences. Each case highlights aspects of the roles these categories play in scientific practice, where the goal is to generate and extend scientific knowledge.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Philosophy, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Giora Hon

  • Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA

    Bernard R. Goldstein

About the authors

Giora Hon, Professor (emeritus) of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Haifa, has published widely on the concept of error in science and philosophy. His edited book with J. Schickore and F. Steinle, Going Amiss in Experimental Research, appeared in 2009 (Springer). His recent work with Bernard R. Goldstein was published by Routledge (2020): Reflections on The Practice of Physics: James Clerk Maxwell’s Methodological Odyssey in Electromagnetism.

Bernard R. Goldstein, University Professor Emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh, has written extensively on the history of astronomy from antiquity to early modern times and has co-authored a number of studies with Giora Hon, notably, From Summetria to Symmetry: The Making of a Revolutionary Scientific Concept (Dordrecht: Springer, 2008).

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Universal Aspects of Scientific Practice: Commitment, Methodology, and Technique

  • Authors: Giora Hon, Bernard R. Goldstein

  • Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Philosophy

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41699-6

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-41698-9Published: 05 November 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-41699-6Published: 04 November 2023

  • Series ISSN: 2211-4548

  • Series E-ISSN: 2211-4556

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: X, 103

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: History of Science, Philosophy of Science, History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics

Publish with us