Dilworth, C. (1995). The metaphysics of science. Kluwer.[buy book]
Card catalog description
The Metaphysics of Science provides a clear, well-founded
conception of modern science, according to which its core consists
of particular metaphysical principles. On this view, both the
empirical and the theoretical aspects of science are the result of the
attempt to apply these metaphysical principles to reality. There is a
flexibility in the application of the principles, however, so that, in
their scientific guise, they may come to be reformed over time
through scientific revolutions. This approach to modern science
provides a unified conception of the enterprise, explaining such of its
various aspects as the principle of induction, the nature of scientific
knowledge and scientific reduction, the fundamental difference
between the natural and social sciences, and the role of essentialism
with respect to natural kinds. Furthermore, it provides a resolution
of the longstanding debate between empiricism and realism. In this
regard, and in others, the view of science advanced in this work is
not only novel, but constitutes an alternative that is superior to both
the empiric-analytic and the sociology of knowledge approaches
that are prevalent today.
Book News, Inc., 06/01/96:
Having explored in earlier works the distinction between scientific
laws and theories, Dilworth (philosophy, Uppsala U.) here takes up
the questions of precisely how laws and theories are related to
principles, and that the fundamental or core principles of modern
science actually are. The metaphysics of science he sees as those
presuppositions so basic that they cannot be explained in scientific
terms. He concludes that whereas empirical laws provide scientific
knowledge, theories link those laws to the underlying principles and
so provide scientific understanding. The three central principles are
the uniformity of nature, substance, and causality. Annotation c. by
Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
1. Empiricism Vs. Realism - The Perennial Debate in the Philosophy
of Science
2. Fundamental and Refined Principles: The Core of Modern
Science
3. Empirical Laws: The Supervention of Experience
4. Scientific Theories: Closing the Circle
5. The Principle-Theory-Law Model of Scientific Explanation
6. The Social Sciences: A Consideration of Economics
7. Natural Kinds
8. Probability and Confirmation
9. Empiricism Vs. Realism Revisited
10. Modern Science and the Future
References
Index