Science, philosophy and the scientific method

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Science, Philosophy and Scientific Method

Introduction to the Philosophy of Science

Among the many accessible and up-to-date introductions to the scientiic method and the relationship between science and philosophy can be pointed out:

Alan F. Chalmers - “What is this science?”, 1st ed. 1978, (tr.it. 1979) “What is This Thing Called Science,” 4th revised ed., 2013
Peter Godfrey-Smith - “Theory and Reality,” 2nd ed. (2022)
David Oldroyd - “History of the Philosophy of Science” - (2002)
Nancy Cartwright - “Science as Seen by a Philosopher,” (2025)
Naomi Oreskes - “Why trust science?”, (2021)
Mauro Dorato - “What does the soul have to do with atoms?”, (2017)
Mario Alai - Introduction to “Philosophy of Science in the Twentieth Century,” (1998)
Samir Okasha - “The First Book of Philosophy of Science,” (2006)
M.C. Galavotti, R.Campaner - “Philosophy of Science,"(2018)

Anthologies of the main texts

for significant excerpts from the most important works of leading scholars are convenient anthologies such as:

Mario Alai (Ed.) - “Philosophy of Science in the Twentieth Century,” (1998) contains an introductory essay by the editor and excerpts by: Hahn, Neurath, Carnap, Schlick, Reichenbach, Hempel, popper, Quine, Toulmin, Hanson, Kuhn, Feyerabend, Laudan, Shapere, Suppe
G.Boniolo,M.L.Dalla Chiara,G.Giorello,C.Sinigaglia,S.Tagliagambe (Ed.) - “Philosophy of Science,"(2002) contains excerpts from: Herschel, Stuart Mill, Whewell, Darwin, Mendeleev, Hertz, Peirce, Mach, poincare’, Duhem, Enriques, Cassirer, Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Russell, Hahn, Neurath, Carnap, schlick, Popper, Geymonat, Quine, Hempel, Kuhn, Lakatos, Feyerabend

Other introductions to the philosophy of science

James Ladyman - “Philosophy of science: an introduction,” (2007)
Stephen G. Brush - “Making 20th Century Science,” (2015)
Lars Goran Johansson - “Philosophy Of Science For Scientist,” (2016)
Michael Strevens - “The Knowledge Machine,” (2021)
Larry Laudan - “Science and Relativism,” (1997)
Donald Gillies, Giulio Giorello - “The Philosophy of Science in the 20th Century,” (2010)
Boniolo G., Vidali P., Philosophy of science, Bruno Mondadori, Milan 1999;
Boniolo G., Vidali P., Introduction to the philosophy of science, 2003;
Fano V. (2005), Understanding science. An introduction to the philosophy of science,
F.Laudisa, E.Datteri - Nature and its patterns. an introduction to the philosophy of science (2013)
John Losee - Philosophy of Science (2016)
E.Castellani,M.Morganti, “The philosophy of science,” 2019
M.C.Amoretti,N.Vassallo, “Small treatise on epistemology,” 2019
M.C.Amoretti,D.Serpico, “Philosophy of science: key words,” 2022

Logical empiricism and conventionalism in the early twentieth century

P. Duhem, “Physical theory, its object and structure,” 1902 (tr.it.1978)
P. Duhem, “Verification and Holism,” 1892-1894 (tr.it.1902)
J.H. Poincaré, “Science and the Hypothesis,” 1902, (tr.it.2012)
J.H. Poincaré, “The Value of Science,” 1905, (tr.it.1993)
J.H. Poincaré, “Science and Method, 1908, (tr.it.2019)
J.H. Poincaré, “Geometry and Chance,” 1902-1913, (tr.it.1997)
G. Bachelard, “The Formation of the Scientific Spirit,” 1938 (tr.it. 1996)
G. Bachelard, “The New Scientific Spirit,” 1934 (tr.it. 2018)
P.W. Bridgman, The Logic of Modern Physics, 1929, (tr.it.1952)
B. Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, 1931 (tr.it.2009)
B. Russell, The Scientific Worldview, 1931 (tr.it.2009)
L. Wittgenstein, Tractatus logico-philosophicus, 1921 (tr.it.1954)
H.Hahn, O.Neurath, R.Carnap , “The scientific conception of the world,” 1929 (tr.it. 1979)
M.Schlick, “The Turning Point in Philosophy,” 1929, tr.it. in A.Pasquinelli (ed.) “Il Neoempirismo,” 1969
M. Schlik, “Positivism and Realism,” 1933
H. Feigl, “Logical Empiricism,” 1943
A.J. Ayer, “Language, Truth and Logic,” 1936
H.Reichenbach, Relativity and a priori knowledge,1920 (tr.it.1984)
H.Reichenbach, The Birth of Scientific Philosophy,1951 (tr.it. 1961)

Scientific method and the advancement of knowledge

K.R. Popper, “Logic of Scientific Discovery,” 1934 (tr.it.2010)
K.R. Popper, “Conjectures and Refutations,” 1972;
K.R. Popper, “The open society and its enemies,” 1974;
W.V.O. Quine, Two dogmas of empiricism, 1951, tr.it. in “From a logical point of view. logical-philosophical essays” (2004)
C.G. Hempel, “The Formation of Concepts and Theories in Empirical Science,” 1952 (tr.it.1976)
C.G. Hempel, “Aspects of scientific explanation,” 1965 (tr.it.1986)
C.G. Hempel, “Philosophy of natural sciences,” 1966 (tr.it.1980).
L.Fleck, “Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact,” 1935 (tr.it.1983)
S. Toulmin, “Prediction and Knowledge,” 1961 (tr.it. 1982)
N.R. Hanson, “The Patterns of Scientific Discovery,” 1958 (tr.it. 1978)
Kuhn T., “The structure of scientific revolutions,” 1978;
Feyerabend P.K., “Against method. Outline of an anarchist theory of knowledge,” 1985;
Feyerabend P.K., Science in a free society, 1981;
Feyerabend P.K., Dialogues on Knowledge, 1991;
Feyerabend P.K., Dialogue on Method, 1993;
Lakatos I. and Musgrave A. (eds.), “Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge,” 1970 (tr.it. 1976);
Lakatos I., The history of science and its rational reconstructions (1971), tr. it. in The methodology of scientific research programs. 1976;
Imre Lakatos, Paul K. Feyerabend, M.Motterlini (ed.) - “For and Against Method,” 2010 tr.it. “On the brink of science.For and against the method”
Larry Laudan - “Scientific Progress,” (1997)
Larry Laudan - “Science and Relativism,” (1997)
D.Shapere - “Reason and the search for knowledge,” 1984