Description
Book SynopsisScientific Thinking is a practical guide to inductive reasoning – the sort of reasoning that is commonly used in scientific activity, whether such activity is performed by a scientist, a reporter, a political pollster, or any one of us in day-to-day life. The book provides comprehensive coverage of such topics as confirmation, sampling, correlations, causality, hypotheses, and experimental methods. Martin’s writing confounds those who would think that such topics must be dry-as-dust, presenting ideas in a lively and engaging tone and incorporating amusing examples throughout. This book underlines the importance of acquiring good habits of scientific thinking, and helps to instill those habits in the reader. Stimulating questions and exercises are included in each chapter.
Trade Review“Robert Martin’s book is an excellent introduction to scientific thinking, and in that respect, to the philosophy of science … [it] renders a number of complex and difficult topics very accessible.” — Rich Hughen, Teaching Philosophy
“Scientific Thinking is admirably clear and linear. It takes the student from the elementary position of undirected observation through problems in sampling to issues in explanation, causation and classification. The book’s informal language helps to make it easy to understand such things as the need for and practical difficulties involved with random sampling. … Scientific and historical examples are presented in an especially illuminating way.” — Carl Matheson, University of Manitoba
Table of ContentsChapter 0: Not Your Usual Introduction
Part I: Induction, Proportions, Correlations
- Chapter 1: Galileo and Mrs. Smith
Chapter 2: Induction, Deduction, Confirmation
Chapter 3: Sampling
Chapter 4: Samples
Chapter 5: Imprecision and Confidence Level
Chapter 6: Statistical Relations
Chapter 7: Correlations Described
Chapter 8: Correlations Calculated
Part II: Explanations
- Chapter 9: Explanations Explained
Chapter 10: Problems with D-N Model
Chapter 11: Hypotheses and Explanations
Chapter 12: Two Strategies for Hypothesizing
Chapter 13: Disconfirming Hypotheses
Chapter 14: Empiricism Revisited
Chapter 15: Categories
Chapter 16: Kinds and Laws
Part III: Cause
- Chapter 17: Seeing Causes
Chapter 18: Causal Relations
Chapter 19: Causal Complications
Chapter 20: Experimental Confirmation
Chapter 21: Experimental Procedures
Chapter 22: Non-Experimental Methods
Chapter 23: The Truth
Index
