It Started with Copernicus

This book is an updated and revised version of a book first published in 2006. It is a good introduction to the philosophy of science, and the author makes no apology for adopting a particular viewpoint broadly aligned with scientific realism and therefore taking a sceptical view of post-modernism and other constructivist standpoints. As the title suggests, Copernicus is the starting point for his analysis. He then moves on to questions of rationality and incommensurability, the question of scientific progress, the nature of truth, methods of enquiry, and the relationship between science and philosophy in terms of the limits of science and the naturalising of epistemology and ethics. The final chapter covers science, scientism and being human, with a particular emphasis on the nature of mind - whether this is physical or spiritual. He takes the former view, claiming that what he calls the residue of unexplainable near death experiences can safely be ignored, just as in the case of UFOs. He is, however, quite right to highlight the dangers of confirmation bias, but this applies just as much to people like Michael Shermer who write about this. The final section discusses the nature of being human, citing Alex Rosenberg as a proponent of atheistic naturalism and providing pithy answers to the big questions about the nature of life. Network readers are unlikely to agree with this analysis, but it is well presented.