Preface
Part I: Knowledge, Objectivity and Values
1. Knowledge 1.1 Ideals deriving from the Greeks
1.2 What is knowledge?
1.3 Inductive support and proof
1.4 Looking forward
2. Objectivity
2.1 Introduction 2.2 Observation and experiment
2.3 Objectivity of interpretation
2.4 Fallibility 2.5 In the eyes of others
2.6 On the shoulders of others
2.7 Pressure: an example of progress in the articulation of a concept
2.8 Summary
3. Relativism
3.1 Vanquishing reason
3.2 Radical meaning change
3.3 Significant truth
3.4 Taking Stock
4. The Use and Abuse of Science
4.1 Introduction-The misuse of science
4.2 Abusing the right to declare "I know"
4.3 Fraud and controversy
4.4 Cooking
4.5 Masquerading as science
4.6 Science and responsibility
4.7 Error, risk and values
Part II: Philosophies of Science
5. Popper: Proving the Worth of Hypotheses
5.1 Popper's two central problems
5.2 The problem of induction
5.3 Demarcation 5.4 Falsifiability
5.5 Ad hoc hypotheses and scientific progress
5.6 Degree of falsifiability or induction by another name?
5.7 Verisimilitude
6. Duhem's Continuity Thesis
6.1 Introduction
6.2 The not so dark middle ages
6.3 Duhem's critique of the idea of a crucial experiment
6.4 Pushing the argument further
6.5 Precision
6.6 Reduction, unity and progress
7. Realism and the Advancement of Knowledge
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Superscientific inference
7.3 The vicissitudes of reference
7.3.1 Has "water" preserved its extension?
7.3.2 Has "atom" preserved its extension from Dalton's time?
7.3.3 Are there remnants of reference of apparently abandoned terms?
7.4 Underdetermination
7.5 Taking stock
Bibliography Index
About the Author: Paul Needham is professor of theoretical philosophy at the University of Stockholm. He has a first degree in chemistry and a masters in philosophy, both from the University of Birmingham, and a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Uppsala. His interests include metaphysics, epistemology and the philosophy of science. He has previously worked on time and tense, causation and subjunctive conditionals. More recent interests are concerned with issues related to chemistry. This includes themes connected to the work of Pierre Duhem, particularly in connection with his role in the establishment of the field of physical chemistry, studies of the origins of the concept of chemical substance in the ancients and its development in more recent times, the discussion of natural kinds and criteria of sameness of substance in modern chemistry, and applications of mereology in the interpretation of macroscopic notions.
