1. Edition - October 2008
26.90 Euro
2008. 296 Pages, Softcover
ISBN-10: 1-4051-8183-4
ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-8183-9 - John Wiley & Sons






Sample Chapter

Short description
This book provides a concise history of Copernicanism, Darwinism, and Freudianism, and offers an introduction to the history and philosophy of science through a problem-situation based approach. It is a study of the interactions between science and philosophy, with emphasis on philosophical presuppositions and consequences, as well as a comparison of several disciplines in the natural and social sciences with respect to their inferential practices. The text ultimately investigates the connections between science and philosophy, to show how science leads to philosophical consequences.

From the contents
General Introduction.

I. Nicolaus Copernicus: The Loss of Centrality.

I. 1 Ptolemy and Copernicus.

I. 2 A Clash of two Worldviews.

I. 3 The Heliocentric Worldview.

I. 4 Copernicus was not a Scientific Revolutionary.

I. 5 The Transition to Newton.

I. 6 Some Philosophical Lessons.

I. 7 Copernicus and Scientific Revolutions.

I. 8 The Anthropic Principle: A Reversal of the Copernican Turn?.

II. Charles Darwin: The Loss of Rational Design.

II. 1 Darwin and Copernicus.

II. 2 Views of Organic Life.

II. 3 Fossil Discoveries.

II. 4 Darwin's Revolution.

II. 5 Philosophical Matters.

II. 5.2 From Biology to the Philosophy of Mind.

II. 5. 3 The Loss of Rational Design.

II. 5.4 Intelligent Design.

II. 6 A Question of Method.

II. 6.1 Darwinian Inferences.

II. 6. 2 Philosophical Empiricism.

II. 6. 3 Some Principles of Elimination.

II. 6.4 Essential Features of Eliminative Inductivism.

II. 6.5 Falsifiability or Testability?.

II. 6.6 Explanation and Prediction.

II. 6.6 Some Models of Explanation - Functional Model, Causal Model, Structural Model.

II. 6. 7 A Brief Return to Realism.

II. 6. 8 Darwin and Scientific Revolutions.

II. 6. 8. 1 Philosophical Consequences.

III. Freud: The Loss of Transparency.

III. 1 Copernicus, Darwin and Freud.

III. 2 Some Views of Humankind.

III. 3 Scientism and the Freudian Model of Personality.

III. 4 The Social Sciences beyond Freud.

III. 5 Evolution and the Social Sciences.

III. 6 Freud and Revolutions in Thought.

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