Philosophy And Scientific Realism
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: 2nd pr.,
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good. Jacket: Worn/faded - small tears; price clipped. Page Condition: Yellowed with signs of ageing. Markings: Previous owner. Usual shelf-wear.
At the crossroads of philosophy and the natural sciences stands a question that has preoccupied some of the greatest minds of the twentieth century: what does it truly mean for a scientific theory to be real? J. J. C. Smart's Philosophy and Scientific Realism confronts this question head-on, arguing with rigour and clarity that the entities posited by modern science — electrons, fields, space-time — are not mere theoretical conveniences but genuine constituents of the world. Smart marshals the tools of analytic philosophy to dismantle instrumentalist and phenomenalist accounts of science, presenting a robust defence of the view that our best scientific theories give us an accurate picture of an observer-independent reality. Published as part of the prestigious International Library of Philosophy and Scientific Method — edited by A. J. Ayer with Bernard Williams as assistant editor — the work sits at the very heart of mid-twentieth-century Anglo-analytic philosophy. Smart's prose is precise and uncompromising, characteristic of the Australian realist tradition he helped to define, and his arguments on the philosophy of mind, identity theory, and the nature of space and time remain foundational texts in contemporary metaphysics. For anyone seeking to understand the philosophical underpinnings of modern science, this landmark work poses a challenge that has yet to be fully answered.
Author: J. J. C. Smart
Format: Hardback
Published: 1965, London Routledge & Kegan Paul
Genre: Philosophy
Edition: 2nd pr.,
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good. Jacket: Worn/faded - small tears; price clipped. Page Condition: Yellowed with signs of ageing. Markings: Previous owner. Usual shelf-wear.
At the crossroads of philosophy and the natural sciences stands a question that has preoccupied some of the greatest minds of the twentieth century: what does it truly mean for a scientific theory to be real? J. J. C. Smart's Philosophy and Scientific Realism confronts this question head-on, arguing with rigour and clarity that the entities posited by modern science — electrons, fields, space-time — are not mere theoretical conveniences but genuine constituents of the world. Smart marshals the tools of analytic philosophy to dismantle instrumentalist and phenomenalist accounts of science, presenting a robust defence of the view that our best scientific theories give us an accurate picture of an observer-independent reality. Published as part of the prestigious International Library of Philosophy and Scientific Method — edited by A. J. Ayer with Bernard Williams as assistant editor — the work sits at the very heart of mid-twentieth-century Anglo-analytic philosophy. Smart's prose is precise and uncompromising, characteristic of the Australian realist tradition he helped to define, and his arguments on the philosophy of mind, identity theory, and the nature of space and time remain foundational texts in contemporary metaphysics. For anyone seeking to understand the philosophical underpinnings of modern science, this landmark work poses a challenge that has yet to be fully answered.