P1:QXN EUBK028-Psillos.cls-Sabon March1,2007 15:21 PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE A–Z i P1:QXN EUBK028-Psillos.cls-Sabon March1,2007 15:21 Volumes available in the Philosophy A–Z Series Christian Philosophy A–Z, Daniel J. Hill and Randal D. Rauser EpistemologyA–Z,MartijnBlaauwandDuncanPritchard EthicsA–Z,JonathanA.Jacobs FeministPhilosophyA–Z,NancyMcHugh IndianPhilosophyA–Z,ChristopherBartley JewishPhilosophyA–Z,AaronW.Hughes PhilosophyofLanguageA–Z,AlessandraTanesini PhilosophyofMindA–Z,MarinaRakova PhilosophyofReligionA–Z,PatrickQuinn Forthcoming volumes AestheticsA–Z,FranGuter ChinesePhilosophyA–Z,BoMou IslamicPhilosophyA–Z,PeterGroff PoliticalPhilosophyA–Z,JonPike ii P1:QXN EUBK028-Psillos.cls-Sabon March1,2007 15:21 Philosophy of Science A–Z Stathis Psillos Edinburgh University Press iii P1:QXN EUBK028-Psillos.cls-Sabon March1,2007 15:21 To my students (cid:2)C StathisPsillos,2007 EdinburghUniversityPressLtd 22GeorgeSquare,Edinburgh Typesetin10.5/13Sabon byTechBooksIndia,andprintedand boundinGreatBritainby AntonyRoweLtd,Chippenham,Wilts ACIPrecordforthisbookis availablefromtheBritishLibrary ISBN9780748622146(hardback) ISBN9780748620333(paperback) TherightofStathisPsillos tobeidentifiedasauthorofthiswork hasbeenassertedinaccordancewith theCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. PublishedwiththesupportoftheEdinburghUniversityScholarly PublishingInitiativesFund. iv P1:QXN EUBK028-Psillos.cls-Sabon March1,2007 15:21 Contents SeriesEditor’sPreface vii IntroductionandAcknowledgements ix NoteonNotation xiii PhilosophyofScienceA–Z 1 Bibliography 266 v P1:QXN EUBK028-Psillos.cls-Sabon March1,2007 15:21 vi P1:QXN EUBK028-Psillos.cls-Sabon March1,2007 15:21 Series Editor’s Preface Science is often seen as consisting of facts and theories, but precisely how the facts relate to the theories, and what is a factandwhatisatheoryhavelongbeenthesubjectmatterof philosophy. Throughout its history scientists have raised the- oretical questions that fall broadly within the purview of the philosopher,andindeedfromquiteearlyonitwasnotalways easytodistinguishbetweenphilosophersandscientists.There has been a huge expansion of science in modern times, and therapiddevelopmentofnewtheoriesandmethodologieshas ledtoanequallyrapidexpansionoftheoreticalandespecially philosophical techniques for making sense of what is taking place. One notable feature of this is the increasingly techni- cal and specialized nature of philosophy of science in recent years.Asonemightexpect,philosophershavebeenobligedto replicatetoadegreethecomplexityofscienceinordertode- scribeitfromaconceptualpointofview.ItistheaimofStathis Psillosinthisbooktoexplainthekeytermsofthevocabulary of contemporary philosophy of science. Readers should be abletousethebookaswithothersintheseries,tohelpthem orient themselves through the subject, and every effort has beenmadetorepresentclearlyandconciselyitsmainfeatures. OliverLeaman vii P1:QXN EUBK028-Psillos.cls-Sabon March1,2007 15:21 viii P1:QXN EUBK028-Psillos.cls-Sabon March1,2007 15:21 Introduction and Acknowledgements Philosophy of science emerged as a distinctive part of philos- ophy in the twentieth century. Its birthplace was continental Europe, where the neat Kantian scheme of synthetic a priori principlesthatweresupposedtobenecessaryfortheverypos- sibilityofexperience(andofscience,ingeneral)clashedwith therevolutionarychangeswithinthesciencesandmathemat- ics at the turn of the twentieth century. The systematic study of the metaphysical and epistemological foundations of sci- enceacquiredgreaturgencyandfounditsformativemoment inthephilosophicalworkofagroupofradicalandinnovative thinkers–thelogicalpositivists–thatgatheredaroundMoritz SchlickinViennainthe1920s. The central target of philosophy of science is to under- stand science as cognitive activity. Some of the central ques- tions that have arisen and thoroughly been discussed are the following. What is the aim and method of science? What makes science a rational activity? What rules, if any, govern theory-change in science? How does evidence relate to the- ory? How do scientific theories relate to the world? How are concepts formed and how are they related to observation? Whatisthestructureandcontentofmajorscientificconcepts, such as causation, explanation, laws of nature, confirma- tion, theory, experiment, model, reduction and so on? These kinds of questions were originally addressed within a formal ix