What Is This Thing Called Science?

A widely used introduction to the philosophy of science. Chalmers begins with the common view that science is derived from the facts of observation by induction, and shows its problems: observation is shaped by theory and prior knowledge, and no amount of observation logically proves a general law. He then examines Popper's falsificationism, Kuhn's account of paradigms and scientific revolutions, Lakatos's methodology of research programmes, and Feyerabend's attack on method. Later editions add chapters on Bayesian approaches, the new experimentalism, laws of nature, and the debate between scientific realism and anti-realism. Each view is set out clearly and tested against episodes from the history of science, especially Galileo and early modern physics. Chalmers draws his own conclusions about what is defensible in each position.

It is the clearest short account of how philosophers have tried to say what makes science scientific, and why it is harder than it looks.