Articulating the World

Articulating the World
Author: Joseph Rouse
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 430
Release: 2015-11-13
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 022629370X

Naturalism as a guiding philosophy for modern science both disavows any appeal to the supernatural or anything else transcendent to nature, and repudiates any philosophical or religious authority over the workings and conclusions of the sciences. A longstanding paradox within naturalism, however, has been the status of scientific knowledge itself, which seems, at first glance, to be something that transcends and is therefore impossible to conceptualize within scientific naturalism itself. In Articulating the World, Joseph Rouse argues that the most pressing challenge for advocates of naturalism today is precisely this: to understand how to make sense of a scientific conception of nature as itself part of nature, scientifically understood. Drawing upon recent developments in evolutionary biology and the philosophy of science, Rouse defends naturalism in response to this challenge by revising both how we understand our scientific conception of the world and how we situate ourselves within it.

Karl Popper's Philosophy of Science

Karl Popper's Philosophy of Science
Author: Stefano Gattei
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2008-10-16
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134182953

Rectifying misrepresentations of Popperian thought with a historical approach to Popper’s philosophy, Gattei reconstructs the logic of Popper’s development to show how one problem and its tentative solution led to a new problem.

The Scientific Stance

The Scientific Stance
Author: Mario Bunge
Publisher:
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2018-02-28
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780761869795

This book demonstrates that any issue or problem can be easily and efficiently evaluated with a scientific viewpoint. The author uses a number of topical cases, from gravitational waves to mental disorders to politics, to illustrate that any subject, even politics and philosophy, can be approached in a scientific manner.

The Empirical Stance

The Empirical Stance
Author: Bas C. van Fraassen
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2008-10-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0300127960

What is empiricism and what could it be? Bas C. van Fraassen, one of the world’s foremost contributors to philosophical logic and the philosophy of science, here undertakes a fresh consideration of these questions and offers a program for renewal of the empiricist tradition. The empiricist tradition is not and could not be defined by common doctrines, but embodies a certain stance in philosophy, van Fraassen says. This stance is displayed first of all in a searing, recurrent critique of metaphysics, and second in a focus on experience that requires a voluntarist view of belief and opinion. Van Fraassen focuses on the philosophical problems of scientific and conceptual revolutions and on the not unrelated ruptures between religious and secular ways of seeing or conceiving of ourselves. He explores what it is to be or not be secular and points the way toward a new relationship between secularism and science within philosophy.

Scientific Ontology

Scientific Ontology
Author: Anjan Chakravartty
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2017-06-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0190651474

Both science and philosophy are interested in questions of ontology - questions about what exists and what these things are like. Science and philosophy, however, seem like very different ways of investigating the world, so how should one proceed? Some defer to the sciences, conceived as something apart from philosophy, and others to metaphysics, conceived as something apart from science, for certain kinds of answers. This book contends that these sorts of deference are misconceived. A compelling account of ontology must appreciate the ways in which the sciences incorporate metaphysical assumptions and arguments. At the same time, it must pay careful attention to how observation, experience, and the empirical dimensions of science are related to what may be viewed as defensible philosophical theorizing about ontology. The promise of an effectively naturalized metaphysics is to encourage beliefs that are formed in ways that do justice to scientific theorizing, modeling, and experimentation. But even armed with such a view, there is no one, uniquely rational way to draw lines between domains of ontology that are suitable for belief, and ones in which it would be better to suspend belief instead. In crucial respects, ontology is in the eye of the beholder: it is informed by underlying commitments with implications for the limits of inquiry, which inevitably vary across rational inquirers. As result, the proper scope of ontology is subject to a striking form of voluntary choice, yielding a new and transformative conception of scientific ontology.

The Scientific Image

The Scientific Image
Author: Bas C. Van Fraassen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 1980-12-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780198244271

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

Ultimate Chinese Martial Art, The: The Science Of The Weaving Stance Bagua 64 Forms And Its Wellness Applications

Ultimate Chinese Martial Art, The: The Science Of The Weaving Stance Bagua 64 Forms And Its Wellness Applications
Author: Jun Feng Li
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2017-01-10
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9814749311

The Ultimate Chinese Martial Art — The Science of the Weaving Stance Bagua 64 Forms and the Wellness Applications has three well integrated parts. Part One describes the cultural, historical and scientific background of the mysterious inner style martial art — Bagua Palm — which used to be taught in a small circle of the Royal families in China. Part Two gives a brief and yet detailed instructions on the techniques and step by step exercises of Bagua Palms with illustrations, including the example of the famous Weaving Stance Bagua 64 Forms. Part Three summarizes the wellness applications of the Bagua Palms as an inner style Chinese martial art.The aim of this book is to help all people on this planet to have a better understanding about wellness and the most effective way to achieve it. The book will thus ultimately make its way to the short list of books which truly leave their marks on the progress of human civilization. The less than sophisticated style of writing makes this book an easy and helpful reading for people from all walks of life.This book is not just about Chinese martial art. It is also about the link between Chinese culture and martial art. With practical instructions on the actual exercise, this book will benefit not just practitioners and trainers in Chinese martial art but effectively all people who read it. This book is not only going to be the martial art book of the year, but the martial art book of the 21st century.This is the first martial art book written by martial art practitioners who have thorough understanding of both physics and actual fighting, with a solid background in Chinese culture. All the three authors of the book have over 40 years of extensive experience each in Chinese martial art. In contrast to conventional Chinese martial art scripts, this book is written by three Chinese authors in plain and vivid English, which is both filled with true understanding of the unique part of Chinese culture and tuned to the cognitive habits of the westerners.

Understanding Philosophy of Science

Understanding Philosophy of Science
Author: James Ladyman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2012-08-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134597908

Few can imagine a world without telephones or televisions; many depend on computers and the Internet as part of daily life. Without scientific theory, these developments would not have been possible. In this exceptionally clear and engaging introduction to philosophy of science, James Ladyman explores the philosophical questions that arise when we reflect on the nature of the scientific method and the knowledge it produces. He discusses whether fundamental philosophical questions about knowledge and reality might be answered by science, and considers in detail the debate between realists and antirealists about the extent of scientific knowledge. Along the way, central topics in philosophy of science, such as the demarcation of science from non-science, induction, confirmation and falsification, the relationship between theory and observation and relativism are all addressed. Important and complex current debates over underdetermination, inference to the best explaination and the implications of radical theory change are clarified and clearly explained for those new to the subject.

Scientific Pluralism

Scientific Pluralism
Author: Stephen H. Kellert
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2006
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780816647637

Scientific pluralism is an issue at the forefront of philosophy of science. This landmark work addresses the question, Can pluralism be advanced as a general, philosophical interpretation of science? Scientific Pluralism demonstrates the viability of the view that some phenomena require multiple accounts. Pluralists observe that scientists present various—sometimes even incompatible—models of the world and argue that this is due to the complexity of the world and representational limitations. Including investigations in biology, physics, economics, psychology, and mathematics, this work provides an empirical basis for a consistent stance on pluralism and makes the case that it should change the ways that philosophers, historians, and social scientists analyze scientific knowledge. Contributors: John Bell, U of Western Ontario; Michael Dickson, U of South Carolina; Carla Fehr, Iowa State U; Ronald N. Giere, U of Minnesota; Geoffrey Hellman, U of Minnesota; Alan Richardson, U of British Columbia; C. Wade Savage, U of Minnesota; Esther-Mirjam Sent, U of Nijmegen. Stephen H. Kellert is professor of philosophy at Hamline University and a fellow of the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science. Helen E. Longino is professor of philosophy at Stanford University. C. Kenneth Waters is associate professor of philosophy and director of the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science.