Description

An authoritative and comprehensive examination of the major theories of scientific method and the demarcation of science in the past fifty years, Scientific Method begins with the question of what methodology might mean and explores the distinction between discovery and justification as well as the ideas of values, rules, and principles. The authors also consider induction and its alternatives, including abduction and Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE), hypothetico-deductive method, and the idea of testability. They discuss what a theory is, and consider not only axiomatic and semantic views but also the idea of idealised models and the methodology of concretising ideal models. Probability and Bayesianism are also examined in detail. Popper's theory of scientific method and the demarcation of science, Lakatos' scientific research programs, and Feyerabend's anarchism are all considered. Naturalist methodologies, such as those proposed by Quine, Laudan, and Rescher, are also examined as are the extreme naturalism of the Strong program in the sociology of knowledge and empirical studies of methodology that arise out of cognitive science.

Informed by the latest thinking, the book offers students an excellent introduction to the notion of scientific method and a wide-ranging discussion of how philosophers and scientists have grappled with the question over recent years.