The History and Philosophy of Science: A Reader - by Daniel J McKaughan & Holly Vandewall

Book Synopsis

The History and Philosophy of Science: A Reader brings together seminal texts from antiquity to the end of the nineteenth century and makes them accessible in one volume for the first time.

With readings from Aristotle, Aquinas, Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Lavoisier, Linnaeus, Darwin, Faraday, and Maxwell, it analyses and discusses major classical, medieval and modern texts and figures from the natural sciences. Grouped by topic to clarify the development of methods and disciplines and the unification of theories, each section includes an introduction, suggestions for further reading and end-of-section discussion questions, allowing students to develop the skills needed to:

§ read, interpret, and critically engage with central problems and ideas from the history and philosophy of science
§ understand and evaluate scientific material found in a wide variety of professional and popular settings
§ appreciate the social and cultural context in which scientific ideas emerge
§ identify the roles that mathematics plays in scientific inquiry

Featuring primary sources in all the core scientific fields - astronomy, physics, chemistry, and the life sciences - The History and Philosophy of Science: A Reader is ideal for students looking to better understand the origins of natural science and the questions asked throughout its history. By taking a thematic approach to introduce influential assumptions, methods and answers, this reader illustrates the implications of an impressive range of values and ideas across the history and philosophy of Western science.

Review Quotes

"This collection aptly unites, and thematically arranges, some of the most important sources in the history of the biological and physical sciences from antiquity through the end of the 19th century. The volume is designed for use in upper division or graduate history and philosophy of science courses and affords instructors ready access to key texts from a near-comprehensive range of time periods. The book stops before the 20th century, but this limitation ensures that the sources it includes are broadly accessible to students without advanced scientific training. The selection of sources is careful, and the translations (where applicable) are fluid ... Summing Up: Recommended. Advanced undergraduate and graduate students and their instructors." - CHOICE

About the Author

Daniel J. McKaughan is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Boston College, USA.

Holly VandeWall is Assistant Professor of the Practice of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at Boston College, USA.