As the new millennium approaches, our scientific knowledge of the
universe surpasses that of any previous age. Yet, paradoxically,
the philosophy of science movement is now in disarray. The collapse
of logical empiricism and the rise of historicism and social
constructivism have effectively left all of the sciences without an
epistemology. The claims of realism have become increasingly
difficult to justify, and, for many, the only alternatives are
probabilism, pragmatism, and relativism. But the case is not
hopeless. According to William A.Wallace, a return to a realist
concept of nature is plausible and, indeed, much needed. Human
beings have a natural ability to understand the world in which they
live. Many have suggested this understanding requires advanced
logic and mathematics. Wallace believes that nature can more
readily be understood with the aid of simple modeling techniques.
Through an ingenious use of iconic and epistemic models, Wallace
guides the reader through the fundamentals of natural philosophy,
explaining how the universe is populated with entities endowed with
different natures-- inorganic, plant, animal, and human. Much of
this knowledge is intuitive, already in people's minds from
experience, education, and exposure to the media. Wallace builds on
this foundation, making judicious use of cognitive science to
provide a model of the human mind that illuminates not only the
philosophy of nature but also the logic, psychology, and
epistemology that are prerequisite to it. With this background,
Wallace sketches a history of the philosophy of science and how it
has functioned traditionally as a type of probable reasoning. His
concern is to go beyond probability and lay bare the epistemic
dimension of science to show how it can arrive at truth and
certitude in the various areas it investigates. He completes his
study with eight case studies of certified scientific growth, the
controversies to which they gave rise, and the methods by which
they ultimately were resolved. The Modeling of Nature provides an
excellent introduction to the fundamentals of natural philosophy,
psychology, logic, and epistemology. William A. Wallace has taught
philosophy of science at the University of Maryland since 1988. For
twenty-five years prior to that, he taught both the philosophy and
history of science at The Catholic University of America. He served
with distinction as a naval officer during World War II, following
which he entered the Dominican Order, being ordained a priest in
1953. He has published sixteen books and more than three hundred
scholarly articles.
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