Includes bibliographical references and index.

Pillars of Science: Reasons, Knowledge, and Truth -- Evidence, Observation, and Measurement -- Uses of Evidence -- Evidence, Rationality, and Disagreement -- The Nature of Probability -- Do Not Be Misled: Confounds and Controls -- Physical Experiments and Their Design -- Experimental Methods That They Don't Teach -- Models: Useful Lies and Informative Fictions -- Causation and Causal Inference -- Strange Causation - Time Travel and Remote Action -- But Is Any of It Real? -- Explanation and Understanding -- Fundamental Theories and the Organization of Science -- Scientific Progress.

"You are an unusual student. We'd be surprised if 1% of STEM majors (or even most philosophy majors) take a course in the philosophy of science. And this is an unusual book in three ways which we hope will provide a readable college text. First, most philosophy of science texts are written for philosophy majors. While this book will provide them with a solid foundation, our goal is to provide STEM majors with a relevant book. But why would they seek such a text? Imagine that there is an opera singer who hits every note, but she has no understanding of the composition. Is she truly a musician or just a performer? In German, a musiker has a deep understanding of music, while a musikant merely plays music. Understanding the philosophy of science is necessary to become a scientifiker rather than a scientifikant (these terms don't really exist but you get the idea)"-- Provided by publisher.

College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Studies Master of Arts in Philosophy

Text in English