Scientific method : a historical and philosophical introduction / Barry Gower.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 262-271) and index.

Introduction -- Galileo Galilei : new methods for a new science -- Francis Bacon : why experiments matter -- Isaac Newton : rules for reasoning scientifically -- The Bernoullis and Thomas Bayes : probability and scientific method -- John Herschel, John Stuart Mill and William Whewell : the uses of hypotheses -- Henri Poincaré and Pierre Duhem : conventions and scientific reasoning -- John Venn and Charles Peirce : probabilities as frequencies -- John Maynard Keynes and Frank Ramsey : probability logic -- Hans Reichenbach and Karl Popper : the (in)dispensability of induction -- Rudolf Carnap : scientific method as Bayesian reasoning -- Conclusion : experimental interventions and social constructions.

The results, conclusions and claims of natural science are often taken to be reliable because they arise from the use of a distinctive method. Yet today, there is widespread scepticism as to whether we can validly talk of method in modern science. This outstanding new survey explains how this controversy has developed since the seventeenth century and explores its philosophical basis. Questions of scientific method are discussed through key figures such as Galileo, Bacon, Newton, Bayes, Mill, Poincare, Duhem, Popper, and Carnap. The concluding chapters contain stimulating discussions of attacks on the idea of scientific method by key figures such as Kuhn, Lakatos, and Feyerabend. Essential reading for students of the history and philosophy of science. Scientific Method will also appeal to anyone with an interest in what philosophers say about science.

Print version record.

English.

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