In this Book
- Scientific Knowledge and Philosophic Thought
- Book
- 2019
- Published by: Johns Hopkins University Press
- Funder: Mellon/NEH / Hopkins Open Publishing: Encore Editions
- Program:
-
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

summary
Originally published in 1986. Are there two kinds of problems—the scientific and the philosophic—each requiring different methods for solution? Or are there, rather, two different ways of approaching a problem, each yielding a different answer according to the method used? Biomedical researcher Sir Harold Himsworth urges scientists not to shy away from using scientific methods to grapple with problems traditionally accepted as belonging to the province of philosophy. The difference between science and philosophy lies not in the problems to which they are directed, Himsworth argues, but rather in the methods they use for solving them. To the scientist, a proposition is something to be investigated; to the philosopher, something to be accepted as a basis for thought. Since the development of the scientific method, substantial progress has been made toward mastering problems in the natural environment. If we are ever to attain a degree of control over problems that derive from human activities, Himsworth claims that we only succeed by approaching them in a comparably objective way.
Table of Contents


- Half Title
- p. i
- Title Page
- p. iii
- Scientific Knowledge And Philosophic Thought
- One. Methods of Thought
- pp. 3-7
- Three. Observations and Hypotheses
- pp. 15-27
- Four. The Particular and the General
- pp. 29-33
- Five. Possibility and Certainty
- pp. 35-47
- Six. Imagination and Credibility
- pp. 49-54
- Eight. Properties and Values
- pp. 71-82
- Nine. Science and Philosophy
- pp. 85-99
Additional Information
ISBN
9781421434780
Related ISBN(s)
9780801833168, 9781421434766, 9781421434773
MARC Record
OCLC
1127868508
Pages
130
Launched on MUSE
2019-11-17
Language
English
Open Access
Yes
Creative Commons
CC-BY-NC-ND