Philosophy of Science: A Beginner's Guide

Beginner's Guide (Oneworld Publications)

by Geoffrey Gorham

So the world didn’t end on 10 September 2008: but maybe it got you thinking…

The world didn’t end on 10 September 2008, but the possibility may have got you was it worth the risk? What is the point of science actually? Geoffrey Gorham considers these questions and explores the social and ethical implications of science by linking them to issues facing scientists human extinction, extraterrestrial intelligence, space colonization, and more.

Genres: Philosophy, Science, Audiobook

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2009

Reviews

[Maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a few kilometers above my head.

[Jurij Fedorov · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a decent overview of the HISTORY of philosophy of science. This has nothing to do with philosophy of science and he keeps rambling about ancient outdated philosophers who are not relevant to modern science or how it's done. He talks about Greek and Christian philosophers yet not even Christians use such outdated personal ideas to criticize or conduct experiments.

I've read a ton of these lazy books that just paraphrase old thinkers without adding to it. None have been any good. There are good books on the philosophy of science and modern issues. How do we define a species? It's not simple and requires loose ideas and concepts about animals. How do we apply terms in science and what do they imply? How do we change common perceptions and agree on new ones? This book contains none of this. Which makes me think philosophy overall as a field is dead as I keep stumbling into this pointless stuff. I don't care what Kant said. It's not relevant and I have read it 100 times before.

[Marcin Copik · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5. A decent and high-level Introduction into the most interesting concepts of science. Autor tries to stay objective most of the time, but sometimes he discusses paradigms and views with very few mentions of criticisms, indicating his personal support. The last chapter was disappointing - it began with a trivial discussion of politics&science in modern world, and then it went into a broad but rather shallow overview of human future.

I'd replace the last chapter and with a more detailed view on the ancient history of science. There, the philosophical and mathematical approaches to science and universe are described with very little detail.

[Jin Shusong · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is not an easy book.

[Harun · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's quite challenging but worth the effort.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice, easy to read introduction to the philosophy. Good overview. Not great, but worth reading if you want a good intro.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

had good discussion in some areas, goes way to far afield in the last third or quarter of the book. Poor reasoning, probably due to bias, in places.