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The Metaphysics of Science: An Account of Modern Science in Terms of Principles, Laws and Theories

The Metaphysics of Science: An Account of Modern Science in Terms of Principles, Laws and Theories

Hardcover

Series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, Book 173

PhilosophyHistory & Philosophy of Science

ISBN10: 1402038372
ISBN13: 9781402038372
Publisher: Springer Nature
Published: Jan 23 2006
Pages: 333
Weight: 1.54
Height: 0.95 Width: 6.61 Depth: 9.66
Language: English
The roots of this work lie in my earlier book, Scientific Progress, which first appeared in 1981. One of its topics, the distinction - tween scientific laws and theories, is there treated with reference to the same distinction as drawn by N. R. Campbell in his Physics: The Elements. Shortly after completing Scientific Progress, I read Rom Harré's The Principles of Scientific Thinking, in which the concept of theory is even more clearly delineated than in Campbell, being directly connected to the notion of a model - as it was in my book. In subsequent considerations regarding science, Harré's work thus - came my main source of inspiration with regard to theories, while Campbell's remained my main source with respect to empirical laws. Around the same time I also read William Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences. In this work, Whewell depicts principles as playing a central role in the formation of science, and conceives of them in much the same way as Kant conceives of fundamental synthetic a priori judgements. The idea that science should have principles as a basic element immediately made sense to me, and from that time I have thought of science in terms of laws, theories and principles.

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