Testing Scientific Theories: Volume 8: 10 (Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816611599 ISBN 13: 9780816611591

Publisher: University of Minnesota Press, 1984

Synopsis

Testing Scientific Theories was first published in 1984. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

Since much of a scientist's work consists of constructing arguments to show how experiments and observation bear on a particular theory, the methodologies of theory testing and their philosophical underpinnings are of vital concern to philosophers of science. Confirmation of scientific theories is the topic of Clark Glymour's important book Theory and Evidence,published in 1980. His negative thesis is that the two most widely discussed accounts of the methodology of theory testing - hypothetico-deductivism and Bayesianism - are flawed. The issues Glymour raises and his alternative "bootstrapping" method provided the focus for a conference sponsored by the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science and for this book. As editor John Earman says in his preface, the papers presented in Testing Scientific Theories germinate so many new ideas that philosophers of science will reap the harvest for years to come.

Topics covered include a discussion of Glymour's bootstrapping theory of confirmation, the Bayesian perspective and the problems of old evidence, evidence and explanation, historical case studies, alternative views on testing theories, and testing particular theories, including psychoanalytic hypotheses and hypotheses about the completeness of the fossil record.

About this title

About the Author

John Earman is adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. He served as editor, with Clark Glymour and John J. Stachel, of another volume in this series, Foundations of Space-Time Theories.

From the Back Cover

Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible to scholars, students, researchers, and general readers. Rich with historical and cultural value, these works are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. The books offered through Minnesota Archive Editions are produced in limited quantities according to customer demand and are available through select distribution partners.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 1984
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816611599
• ISBN 13: 9780816611591
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496
• Editor: Earman John