Introductory Readings
in the
Philosophy of Science

Part 1: Science and Nonscience

Sir Karl Popper, "Science, Conjectures and Refutations"

Paul Feyerabend, "How to Defend Society Against Science"

Paul R. Thagard, "Why Astrology is Pseudoscience"

Philip Kitcher, "Believing Where we Cannot Prove"

Part 2: Explanation and Law

Carl G. Hempel, "Studies in the Logic of Explanation"

Karl Lambert and Gordon Britten, "Laws and Conditional Statements"

Nancy Cartwright, "The Truth Doesn't Explain Much"

Part 3: Theory and Observation

Rudolph Carnap, "The Nature of Theories"

N.R. Hanson, "Observation"

W.T. Stace, "Science and the Physical World"

Stephen Toulmin, "Do Sub-Microscopic Entities Exist?"

Grover Maxwell, "The Ontological Status of Theoretical Entities"

Part 4: Confirmation and Acceptance

W.V. Quine and J.S. Ullian, "Hypothesis"

Ronald Giere,"Justifying Scientific Theories"

Philipp G. Frank, "The Variety of Reasons for the Acceptance of Scientific Theories"