The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science

Widely acclaimed by specialists in the field, this Companion serves as an overall introduction to the subject. The four parts deal with the historical and philosophical context, specific debates around topics such as empiricism, ethics of science, explanation, feminist approaches, inference, naturalism, structure of theories and underdetermination. The third part addresses a variety of concepts such causation, determinism, evidence, measurement, models, prediction and unification, while the fourth deals with individual sciences such as chemistry, cognitive science, physics and economics - although there must be some argument about the status of economics as a science. Each individual chapter is complete in itself but the interaction makes for rich reading, and any student who managed to master the contents would be extremely well placed.