Is the scientific method a myth? Perspectives from the history and philosophy of science

Elliott Sober

Abstract


Many philosophers and historians of science deny that there is a single scientific method that applies across all scientific disciplines. Here I distinguish normative from descriptive versions of this thesis. I defend the thesis that there are general normative principles that govern every science.

Keywords


Darwin; Einstein; evolution; inference; methodology

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.0.3883

References


Darwin, C., 1859. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. John Murray. London. (Facsimile, 1964. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, MA).

Darwin, C., 1959. The Origin of Species. A Variorum Edition. M. Peckham. University of Pennsylvania Press. Philadelphia.

Einstein, A., 1933. «On the Method of Theoretical Physics». Herbert Spencer Lecture. Oxford University Press. Oxford.

Hacking, I., 1965. The Logic of Statistical Inference. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.

Salmon, W., 1984. Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World. Princeton University Press. Princeton.

Sober, E., 2012. Did Darwin Write the Origin Backwards? Prometheus Books. Amherst. New York.

Sober, E., 2015. Ockham’s Razors – A User’s Manual. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.


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