The Description for this book, Theory and Evidence, will be forthcoming.

In this book van Fraassen develops an alternative to scientific realism by constructing and evaluating three mutually reinforcing theories.

There are obvious benefits to be gained from the study of logic: heightened ability to express ideas clearly and concisely, increased skill in defining one's terms, enlarged capacity to formulate arguments rigorously and to analyze them critically. But the greatest benefit, in my judgment, is the recognition that reason can be applied in every aspect of human affairs.

In this sequence of philosophical essays about natural science, the author argues that fundamental explanatory laws, the deepest and most admired successes of modern physics, do not in fact describe regularities that exist in nature. Cartwright draws from many real-life examples to propound a novel distinction: that theoretical entities, and the complex and localized laws that describe them, can be interpreted realistically, but the simple unifying laws of basic theory cannot.

This paper provides a general defense of the idea that the cognitive sciences provide models that are useful for exploring issues that have traditionally occupied philosophers of science. Questions about the nature of theories, for example, are assimilated into studies of the nature of cognitive representations, while questions concerning the choice of theories fall under studies of human judgment and decision making. The implications of adopting "a cognitive approach" are explored, particularly the rejection of foundationist epistemologies which might provide a (...) philosophical justification of science. Instead I suggest a scientific foundation provided by evolutionary biology and the scientific goal of explaining science as a human phenomenon. (shrink)

Computational models can aid in the development of philosophical views concerning the structure and growth of scientific knowledge. In cognitive psychology, computational models have proved valuable for describing the structures and processes of thought and for testing these models by writing and running computer programs using the techniques of artificial intelligence. Similarly, in the philosophy of science models can be developed that shed light on the structure, discovery, and justification of scientific theories. This paper briefly describes a computational model of (...) problem solving and learning that has been used to simulate several kinds of scientific reasoning. (shrink)

A formalism for the incremental confirmation of one hypothesis relative to another hypothesis and the requirement for adding a hypothesis to a belief system is presented as a sufficient explication of confirmation. The formalism is contrasted with the explications of confirmation offered by Ian Hacking and Karl Popper. It is shown to solve some of the problems which are most often put forth as foils of similar approaches to confirmation theory. Finally, the method is indicated by which the formalism avoids (...) all other standard problems. (shrink)