National Science Library of Georgia

Image from Google Jackets

Making prehistory : historical science and the scientific realism debate / Derek Turner.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Cambridge studies in philosophy and biologyPublisher: Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2007Description: 1 online resource (xiv, 223 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)Content type:
  • text
Media type:
  • computer
Carrier type:
  • online resource
ISBN:
  • 9780511487385 (ebook)
Subject(s): Additional physical formats: Print version: : No titleDDC classification:
  • 501 22
LOC classification:
  • Q175.32.R42 T87 2007
Online resources:
Contents:
Asymmetries -- The colors of the dinosaurs -- Manipulation matters -- Paleontology's chimeras -- Novel predictions in historical science -- Making prehistory: could the past be socially constructed? -- The natural historical attitude -- Snowball Earth in the balance.
Summary: Scientists often make surprising claims about things that no one can observe. In physics, chemistry, and molecular biology, scientists can at least experiment on those unobservable entities, but what about researchers in fields such as paleobiology and geology who study prehistory, where no such experimentation is possible? Do scientists discover facts about the distant past or do they, in some sense, make prehistory? In this book Derek Turner argues that this problem has surprising and important consequences for the scientific realism debate. His discussion covers some of the main positions in philosophy of science - realism, social constructivism, empiricism, and the natural ontological attitude - and shows how they relate to issues in paleobiology and geology. His original and thought-provoking book will be of wide interest to philosophers and scientists alike.
Tags from this library: No tags from this library for this title. Log in to add tags.
No physical items for this record

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Asymmetries -- The colors of the dinosaurs -- Manipulation matters -- Paleontology's chimeras -- Novel predictions in historical science -- Making prehistory: could the past be socially constructed? -- The natural historical attitude -- Snowball Earth in the balance.

Scientists often make surprising claims about things that no one can observe. In physics, chemistry, and molecular biology, scientists can at least experiment on those unobservable entities, but what about researchers in fields such as paleobiology and geology who study prehistory, where no such experimentation is possible? Do scientists discover facts about the distant past or do they, in some sense, make prehistory? In this book Derek Turner argues that this problem has surprising and important consequences for the scientific realism debate. His discussion covers some of the main positions in philosophy of science - realism, social constructivism, empiricism, and the natural ontological attitude - and shows how they relate to issues in paleobiology and geology. His original and thought-provoking book will be of wide interest to philosophers and scientists alike.

There are no comments on this title.

to post a comment.
Copyright © 2023 Sciencelib.ge All rights reserved.