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Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > Philosophy of science
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Particles and Waves - Historical Essays in the Philosophy of Science (Paperback, Reissue)
Loot Price: R2,658
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Particles and Waves - Historical Essays in the Philosophy of Science (Paperback, Reissue)
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This volume brings together six published and two new essays by the
noted philosopher of science, Peter Achinstein. It represents the
culmination of his examination of methodological issues that arise
in nineteenth-century physics. He focuses on the philosophical
problem of how, if at all, it is possible to confirm scientific
hypotheses that postulate `unobservables' such as light waves,
molecules, and electrons. This question is one that not only was of
great interest to nineteenth-century physicists and methodologists,
but continues to occupy philosophers of science up to the present
day. The essays in this volume deal with this vexing problem as it
arose in actual scientific practice in three nineteenth-century
episodes: the debate between particle and wave theorists of light,
Maxwell's kinetic theory of gases, and J.J. Thomson's discovery of
the electron. Achinstein shows that the most important issue raised
by these three cases concerns the legitimacy of introducing
hypotheses that invoke "unobservables". If science is to be
empirical, can such hypotheses be employed? How, if at all, is it
possible to confirm them? Achinstein here assesses the
philosophical validity of nineteenth-century and modern answers to
these questions and presents and defends his own solutions.
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