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Author Parsons, Keith M., 1952-

Title It started with Copernicus : vital questions about science / Keith Parsons.

Publication Info. Amherst, New York : Prometheus Books, 2014.

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 East Hartford, Raymond Library - Adult Department  501 PARSONS    Check Shelf
 New Britain, Main Library - Non Fiction  501.22 P25    Check Shelf
Description 429 pages ; 23 cm
Note Portions were originally published as: Copernican questions (Boston : McGraw-Hill, 2006).
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents Copernican questions, 2006 ; It started with Copernicus, 2014 -- Copernican questions. What was Copernicus's revolution? ; What happens when your world changes? ; Copernican questions : rationality and realism ; The plan of the book -- Is science really rational? : the problem of incommensurability. Incommensurability of standards ; Incommensurability of values ; Incommensurability of meaning ; Evaluating meaning incommensurability ; Conversion : a concluding case study -- A walk on the wild side : social constructivism, postmodernism, feminism, and that old-time religion. The constructivist challenge ; Postmodernism attacks! ; Is "objectivity" what a man calls his subjectivity? ; Is science godless? -- Ascending the slippery slope : scientific progress and truth. The evils of Whig history ; Social-constructivist history ; Does science converge toward truth? ; Assessing Laudan's Critique of Convergent Realism ; Scientists' own realism ; Could we be wrong about everything? -- Truth of consequences? Electrons : real particles or convenient fictions? ; Van Fraassen's constrictive empiricism ; Do we observe through microscopes? ; But what about things that are really unobservable? ; So what really is the goal of science? -- Mysteries of methods. Induction and deduction ; Aristotle : the first methodologist ; Bacon : scientific method renovated? ; The hypothetico-deductive method ; Hume on induction ; Popper and the rejection of induction ; Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE) to the rescue? -- If you have science, who needs philosophy? The limits of science? ; The breakdown of philosophy ; Naturalizing epistemology ; Naturalizing ethics ; Philosophy in an age of science -- Science, scientism, and being human. Mind : physical or spiritual? ; Science and the human image ; Ape, angel, or neither?
Subject Science -- Philosophy -- History.
Science -- Methodology.
Constructive realism.
Added Title Copernican questions
ISBN 9781616149291 (pbk.)
1616149299 (pbk.)
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