Note: Intro -- Evaluating Philosophies -- Preface -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part I: How to Nurture or Hinder Research -- Chapter 1: Philosophies and Phobosophies -- 1.1 Midwives -- 1.2 Teachers -- 1.3 Gatekeepers -- 1.4 Wardens and Prisoners -- 1.5 Cheated -- 1.6 Mercenary -- 1.7 Escapist -- 1.8 Ambivalent -- 1.9 Conclusion -- Chapter 2: The Philosophical Matrix of Scientific Progress -- 2.1 From Skepticism to Mysterianism -- 2.2 The Social Matrix -- 2.3 The Role of Philosophy in the Birth of Modern Science -- 2.4 Materialism, Systemism, Dynamicism, and Realism -- 2.5 First Parenthesis: The Ossification of Philosophy -- 2.6 Scientism, Rationalism, and Humanism -- 2.7 Second Parenthesis: Logical Imperialism -- 2.8 The Philosophical Pentagon -- 2.9 Irregular Pentagons -- 2.10 From Social Science to Sociotechnology -- 2.11 Dogmatic and Programmatic Isms -- 2.12 Concluding Remarks -- References -- Chapter 3: Systemics and Materialism -- 3.1 The Housing Problem: A Component of a Ten-Dimensional Problem -- 3.2 Approach -- 3.3 Preliminary Examples -- 3.4 Systemic Approach and Theory -- 3.5 Natural Sciences -- 3.6 Social Sciences -- 3.7 Biosocial Sciences -- 3.8 Technologies -- 3.9 The Knowledge System -- 3.10 Philosophical Systems -- 3.11 Concluding Remarks -- References -- Part II: Philosophy in Action -- Chapter 4: Technoscience? -- 4.1 Discovery and Invention -- 4.2 Primacy of Praxis? -- 4.3 Consequences of the Confusión -- 4.4 "Translation" of Science into Industry via Technology -- 4.5 Authentic Technosciences -- 4.6 Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 5: Climate and Logic -- 5.1 The Kaya Identity -- 5.2 From Logic to Reality -- 5.3 A New Formula -- 5.4 Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 6: Informatics : One or Multiple? -- 6.1 From Information System to Communication System -- 6.2 Back to Information -- 6.3 Conclusion -- References. , Chapter 7: Wealth and Well-being, Economic Growth and Integral Development -- 7.1 Is Happiness for Sale? -- 7.2 Can Well-Being Be Bought? -- 7.3 The Problem of Inequality -- 7.4 Sectoral Growth and Integral Development -- 7.5 Conclusions -- References -- Chapter 8: Can Standard Economic Theory Account for Crises? -- 8.1 Standard Economics Focuses on Equilibrium -- 8.2 The Economic Rationality Postulate -- 8.3 The Free Market Postulate -- 8.4 Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 9: Marxist Philosophy: Promise and Reality -- 9.1 Dialectical Materialism -- 9.2 Hegel's Disastrous Legacy -- 9.3 Historical Materialism -- 9.4 Epistemology and the Sociology of Knowledge -- 9.5 Theory and Praxis, Apriorism and Pragmatism -- 9.6 State and Planning -- 9.7 Dictatorship and Disaster -- 9.8 Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 10: Rules of Law: Just and Unjust -- 10.1 Politics, Law, and Morals -- 10.2 Legal Legitimacy -- 10.3 Political Legitimacy -- 10.4 Moral Legitimacy and Legitimacy Tout Court -- 10.5 Emergencies -- 10.6 If You Wish Order, Prepare for Disorder -- 10.7 The Ultimate Test: The Rise of Nazism -- 10.8 Legal Positivism: Fig Leaf of Authoritarianism -- 10.9 Conclusion -- References -- Part III: Philosophical Gaps -- Chapter 11: Subjective Probabilities: Admissible in Science? -- 11.1 Beware Ordinary Language -- 11.2 Monty Hall Brain Teasers -- 11.3 Learned Ignorance -- 11.4 Probability as Credence -- 11.5 Prior Probabilities Are Inscrutable -- 11.6 Bayesianism Can Be Disastrous -- 11.7 Trial by Numbers -- 11.8 Concluding Remarks -- References -- Chapter 12: Does Inductive Logic Work? -- 12.1 The Semantic Objection to Inductivism -- 12.2 Bayesian Induction -- 12.3 A Radical Criticism of Bayesian Induction -- 12.4 Concluding Remarks -- References -- Chapter 13: Bridging Theories to Data -- 13.1 The Attempt to Replace the Theoretical with the Empirical. , 13.2 Philosophers Rediscover Experiment -- 13.3 What Measuring Instruments Show -- 13.4 Visualizing the Unseen -- 13.5 Theory-Based Indicators -- 13.6 The Place of Indicators in Theory Testing -- 13.7 Indicators in Quantum Physics -- 13.8 Concluding Remarks -- References -- Chapter 14: Matter and Energy: Physical or Metaphysical Concepts? -- 14.1 Energy: Stuff or Property? -- 14.2 Special Energies -- 14.3 Minitheory -- 14.4 Common Errors -- 14.5 The Ontological Square -- 14.6 Conclusion -- Chapter 15: Does Quantum Physics Refute Realism, Materialism and Determinism? -- 15.1 The Spiritualist View -- 15.2 Resorting to Experiment -- 15.3 Criticism of the Subjectivist Interpretation -- 15.4 Indeterminacy and Decoherence -- 15.5 The Quantum Theory Is Not About Observers -- 15.6 Quantum Theory and Realism: An Entangled Affair -- 15.7 Has Matter Vanished? -- 15.8 Indeterminism -- 15.9 Is Rationality Limited? -- 15.10 Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 16: Parallel Universes? Digital Physics? -- 16.1 Imagination: Free and Disciplined -- 16.2 Possible Worlds -- 16.3 Virtual Worlds? Virtual Particles? -- 16.4 Digital Physics -- 16.5 Physics≠Semiotics -- 16.6 Concluding Remarks -- References -- Chapter 17: Can Functionalist Psychology Explain Anything? -- 17.1 Functionalist Description -- 17.2 To Explain Is to Unveil Mechanisms -- 17.3 Submission Sickens -- 17.4 Beyond Nativism and Empiricism -- 17.5 Concluding Remarks -- References -- Chapter 18: Knowledge Pyramids or Rosettes? -- 18.1 Epistemological Pyramids and Rosettes -- 18.2 Logical Pyramids -- 18.3 Ontological Pyramids -- 18.4 Place of the Universal Sciences -- 18.5 Concluding Remarks -- References -- Chapter 19: Existence : Single or Double? -- 19.1 Existence and Someness -- 19.2 Existential Predicate and Anselm's Proof -- 19.3 Logic and Ontology -- 19.4 Truth: Single or Double? -- 19.5 Conclusion. , References -- Chapter 20: Conclusion: Valuation Criterion -- 20.1 Monism or Pluralism? -- 20.2 The Fertility Criterion -- 20.3 Conclusion -- References -- Philosophical Glossary -- Index.

Note: Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Part III-Applying Scientific Ideas -- 9. Explanation -- 9.1. Answering Whys -- 9.2. Nonscientific Explanation -- 9.3. Scientific Subsumption -- 9.4. Mechanismic Explanation -- 9.5. *Mechanismic Explanation and Reduction of Laws -- 9.6. Explanatory Power -- 9.7. Functions and Reach -- Bibliography -- 10. Prediction -- 10.1. Projection -- 10.2. Stochastic Projection -- 10.3. Hindcast -- 10.4. Projective Power -- 10.5. Riddles -- Bibliography -- 11. Action -- 11.1. Truth and Action -- 11.2. Technological Rule -- 11.3. Technological Forecast -- Bibliography -- Part IV-Testing Scientific Ideas -- 12. Observation -- 12.1. Fact -- 12.2. Observability -- 12.3. Indicator -- 12.4. Data and Evidence -- 12.5. Function -- Bibliography -- 13. Measurement -- 13.1. Quantitation -- 13.2. Measured Value -- 13.3. Counting -- 13.4. Scale and Unit -- 13.5. Techniques -- 13.6. Upshot -- Bibliography -- 14. Experiment -- 14.1. Planned Change -- 14.2. Control -- 14.3. Design -- 14.4. Significance -- 14.5. Testing the Test -- 14.6. Functions -- Bibliography -- 15. Concluding -- 15.1. Inferring -- 15.2. Testing Observational Propositions -- 15.3. Testing Hypotheses -- 15.4. Confirmation and Refutation -- 15.5. A Case History: Torricelli -- 15.6. Testing Theories -- 15.7. Theory Assaying -- Bibliography -- Afterword -- Author Index -- Subject Index.

Note: Front Cover -- Science and Convention: Essays on Henri Poincaré's Philosophy of Scienceand The Conventionalist Tradition -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Dedication -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Chapter 1. On the Origin and Significance of Poincaré's Conventionalism -- 1. Programme for an Adequate Account of Poincaré's Philosophy of Science -- 2. Geometric Conventionalism as an Epistemological Elaboration of the "Riemann-Poincaré Principle of the Conventionality of Congruence -- Concluding remarks -- Notes -- Chapter 2. The Physics of the Principles and its Philosophy: Hamilton, Poincaré and Ramsey -- Ramsey on Theories -- Duhem's Instrumentalist Interpretation of "Saving the Phenomena -- Hamilton's Method in Geometrical Optics -- Hamilton and Poincaré -- Notes -- Chapter 3 Duhem's Instrumentalism and its Critique: A Reappraisal -- Two Views Concerning Instrumentalism and its Effect on Natural Science -- The Instrumentalism of Oslander and Bellarmino -- The Instrumentalism of Duhem -- Notes -- Chapter 4. Radical Conventionalism, its Background and Evolution: Poincaré, LeRoy and Ajdukiewicz -- I . THE EVOLUTION OF AJDUKIEWICZ'S PHILOSOPHY -- 2. The Conventionalism of Henri Poincaré -- 3. LeRoy's Nominalism and the Controversy over the existence of a "Universal Invariant -- 4 . The Ajdukiewicz Languages and Radical Conventionalism -- 5 . Beyond Radical Conventionalism -- Notes -- Chapter 5. Poincaré and the Discovery of Special Relativity -- Bora's Reminiscences and Arguments against Whittaker -- Critical Comments on Born's Argumentation -- Observational versus Conceptual Equivalence -- The Question of Equivalence: Lorentz's Research Programme and Poincaré's Epistemology -- Conclusions -- Notes -- Appendix: Logical Comparability and Conceptual Disparity Between Newtonian and Relativistic Mechanics -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Name Index. , Subject Index.

Note: Front Cover -- Relativity and Geometry -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Newtonian Principles -- 1.1. The Task of Natural Philosophy -- 1.2. Absolute Space -- 1.3. Absolute Time -- 1.4. Rigid Frames and Coordinates -- 1.5. Inertial Frames and Newtonian Relativity -- 1.6. Newtonian Spacetime -- 1.7. Gravitation -- Chapter 2. Electrodynamics and the Aether -- 2.1. Nineteenth-Century Views on Electromagnetic Action -- 2.2. The Relative Motion of the Earth and the Aether -- Chapter 3. Einstein's 'Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies' -- 3.1. Motivation -- 3.2. The Definition of Time in an Inertial Frame -- 3.3. The Principles of Special Relativity -- 3.4. The Lorentz Transformation. Einstein's Derivation of 1905 -- 3.5. The Lorentz Transformation. Some Corollaries and Applications -- 3.6. The Lorentz Transformation. Linearity -- 3.7. The Lorentz Transformation. Ignatowsky's Approach -- 3.8. The "Relativity Theory of Poincaré and Lorentz -- Chapter 4. Minkowski Spacetime -- 4.1. The Geometry of the Lorentz Group -- 4.2. Minkowski Spacetime as an Affine Metric Space and as a Riemannian Manifold -- 4.3. Geometrical Objects -- 4.4. Concept Mutation at the Birth of Relativistic Dynamics -- 4.5. A Glance at Spacetime Physics -- 4.6. The Causal Structure of Minkowski Spacetime -- Chapter 5. Einstein's Quest for a Theory of Gravity -- 5.1. Gravitation and Relativity -- 5.2. The Principle of Equivalence -- 5.3. Gravitation and Geometry circa 1912 -- 5.4. Departure from Flatness -- 5.5. General Covariance and the Einstein-Grossmann Theory -- 5.6. Einstein's Arguments against General Covariance: 1913-14 -- 5.7. Einstein's Papers of November 1915 -- 5.8. Einstein's Field Equations and the Geodesic Law of Motion -- Chapter 6. Gravitational Geometry -- 6.1. Structures of Spacetime. , 6.2. Mach's Principle and the Advent of Relativistic Cosmology -- 6.3. The Friedmann Worlds -- 6.4. Singularities. -- Chapter 7. Disputed Questions -- 7.1. The Concept of Simultaneity -- 7.2. Geometric Conventionalism -- 7.3. Remarks on Time and Causality -- Appendix -- A: Differentiable Manifolds. -- B: Fibre Bundles -- C: Linear Connections -- D: Useful Formulae. -- Notes -- References -- Index.

Note: Front Cover -- Relativity: The Theory and its Philosophy -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Dedicated -- Preface -- List of Logical Symbols -- Chapter 1. Mathematical Preliminaries -- Sets, Relations, Functions -- N-tuples, Vectors, Matrices, and other Items -- A Trigonometric Digression -- Vector Algebra -- The Calculus -- Bibliography for Chapter 1 -- Chapter 2. Relativity and Newtonian Mechanics -- The Concept of Relativity -- Elementary Foundations of Newtonian Mechanics -- The Principle of Classical Relativity -- Bibiliography for Chapter 2 -- Chapter 3. The Principle of Special Relativity -- The Breakdown of Classical Relativity -- Relativistic Kinematics -- Four-Vector Formalism and Space-Time Geometry -- Relativistic Mechanics -- The Principle of Special Relativity -- Bibliography for Chapter 3 -- Chapter 4. Empiricism, Rationalism and Special Relativity -- Relativity and the A Priori in the Philosophy of Eddington -- The Transcendentalism of J. R. Lucas -- The Radical Empiricism of Percy Bridgman -- The Liberalized Empiricism of the Logical Positivists -- Bibliography for Chapter 4 -- Chapter 5. Special Relativity and Conventionalism -- The Conventionality of Simultaneity -- Bibliography for Chapter 5 -- Chapter 6. The Commensurability of Classical and Relativistic Mechanics -- Bibliography for Chapter 6 -- Chapter 7. More Mathematics -- Motivation -- Curvilinear Coordinates -- Tensors and their Algebra -- Tensor Calculus -- The Riemann-Christoffel Tensor -- Bibliography for Chapter 7 -- Chapter 8. The Path to General Relativity -- The Classical Theory of Gravitation -- The Field-Theoretic Standpoint -- Mach's Principle -- The Principle of Equivalence -- The Principle of General Covariance -- Bibliography for Chapter 8 -- Chapter 9. An Outline of General Relativity -- Bibliography for Chapter 9. , Chapter 10. Relativity and Covariance -- Bibliography for Chapter 10 -- Chapter 11. Spacetime and Geometry -- The Distinction Between Pure and Applied Mathematics -- The Geometric Conventionalism of Henri Poincaré -- The Geometric Empiricism of Hans Reichenbach -- Geochronometric Conventionalism -- A Critique of Geochronometric Conventionalism -- General Relativity and Space-time Structure -- The Ontology of Spacetime -- Bibliography for Chapter 11 -- Index.

Note: Front Cover -- Why and How: Some Problems and Methods in Historical Biology -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. The Fossil Record -- Bias, Adequacy, and Sampling of the Fossil Record -- Continuity and Discontinuity in the Fossil Record -- History of a Fauna -- Periodicity in Vertebrate Evolution -- Chapter 2. Morphology, Homology, and Function -- A Problem of Black on Black -- Braincasts -- A Way to Look Inside Fossils -- A Way to Tell Crocodiles Apart -- Ratio Diagrams -- The Concept and Definition of Homology -- An Exercise in Homology -- An Exercise in Functional Inference and Model-making -- How a Strange and Ancient Animal Got About -- Chapter 3. Paleoecology and Faunal Analysis -- Ecological Analysis of an Ancient Local Fauna -- Faunal Analysis, Fades, and an Evolutionary Principle -- The Long View -- Chapter 4. Systematics and Taxonomy -- Patterns of Cladistic Evolution -- Remarks on Vertebrate Phylogeny -- Higher Categories in Phylogeny and Taxonomy -- Supraspecific Variation and Higher Categories -- The Reality of Higher Categories -- The Concept of Species -- Types, Name-bearers, and Hypodigms in Taxonomy -- Taxonomic Linguistics -- Chapter 5. Some Bits of Biometry -- An Application of Statistical Thinking and Methods -- Range as a Zoological Character -- Standardization of Normal Frequency Distributions -- Chapter 6. Biogeography -- Approach to a Sampling Problem -- A History of an Intercontinental Faunal Resemblance -- Measurement of Faunal Resemblance -- Migration Routes -- An Example of Sweepstakes Dispersal -- Probability and Time -- Species Density of Recent North American Mammals -- Historical Analysis of a Continental Mammalian Fauna -- Index.