Abstract

This volume is based on the lectures given in The Royal Institute of Philosophy's annual lecture series in London for 2005–6. In it leading figures in the philosophy of science focus on key topics in the subject: realism, natural kinds, scientific progress, the confirmation of theories and the notion of simplicity in theory evaluation, the use of models in science and the relation of physics and metaphysics. There are also discussions of action at a distance, of the relation of science to technology and of lessons from the history of science to the evaluation of university research today. Taken all in all the volume provides a snapshot of some of the liveliest debates in the philosophy of science today, and also to the ways in which issues in the philosophy of science are relevant to philosophy in the wider sense.