Science and Partial Truth A Unitary Approach to Models and Scientific Reasoning |
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| Author:
| da Costa, Newton C. A.
French, Steven |
| Series title: | Oxford Studies in the Philosophy of Science Ser. |
| ISBN: | 978-0-19-803553-4 |
| Publication Date: | Oct 2003 |
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press, Incorporated
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| Book Format: | Ebook |
| List Price: | Contact Supplier contact
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Book Description:
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In the past thirty years, two fundamental issues have emerged in the philosophy of science. One concerns the appropriate attitude we should take towards scientific theories--whether we should regard them as true or merely empirically adequate, for example. The other concerns the nature ofscientific theories and models and how these might best be represented.In this ambitious book, da Costa and French bring these two issues together by arguing that theories and models should be regarded...
More DescriptionIn the past thirty years, two fundamental issues have emerged in the philosophy of science. One concerns the appropriate attitude we should take towards scientific theories--whether we should regard them as true or merely empirically adequate, for example. The other concerns the nature ofscientific theories and models and how these might best be represented.In this ambitious book, da Costa and French bring these two issues together by arguing that theories and models should be regarded as partially rather than wholly true. They adopt a framework that sheds new light on issues to do with belief, theory acceptance, and the realism-antirealism debate. Thenew machinery of partial structures that they develop offers a new perspective from which to view the nature of scientific models and their heuristic development. Their conclusions will be of wide interest to philosophers and historians of science.