''What Is This Thing Called Science?'' (1976) is a best-selling textbook by
Alan Chalmers.
Overview
The book is a guide to the
philosophy of science
Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ult ...
which outlines the shortcomings of naive empiricist accounts of science, and describes and assesses modern attempts to replace them. The book is written with minimal use of technical terms.
[Rafe Champion]
What is this thing called science? review
(review of the 1999 edition) ''What Is This Thing Called Science?'' was first published in 1976, and has been translated into many languages.
[Alan Chalmers, (BSc Bristol, MSc Manchester, PhD London)](_blank)
/ref>
Editions
*''What Is This Thing Called Science?'', Queensland University Press and Open University Press, 1976, pp. 157 + xvii. (Translated into German, Dutch, Italian Spanish and Chinese.)
*''What Is This Thing Called Science?'', Queensland University Press, Open University Press and Hackett, 2nd revised edition (6 new chapters), 1982, pp. 179 + xix. (Translated into German, Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Portuguese, Polish and Danish, Greek and Estonian.)
''What Is This Thing Called Science?''
University of Queensland Press, Open University press, 3rd revised edition, Hackett, 1999. (Translated into Korean.)
''What Is This Thing Called Science?''
University of Queensland Press, Open University press, 4th edition, 2013.
See also
* ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' (1962; second edition 1970; third edition 1996; fourth edition 2012) is a book about the history of science by philosopher Thomas S. Kuhn. Its publication was a landmark event in the history, philoso ...
'', by Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Samuel Kuhn (; July 18, 1922 – June 17, 1996) was an American philosopher of science whose 1962 book '' The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' was influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term ''paradig ...
* ''The Logic of Scientific Discovery
''The Logic of Scientific Discovery'' is a 1959 book about the philosophy of science by the philosopher Karl Popper. Popper rewrote his book in English from the 1934 (imprint '1935') German original, titled ''Logik der Forschung. Zur Erkenntnisthe ...
'', by Karl Popper
References
External links
Review of ''What is this Thing Called Science?''
* Deborah G. Mayo: Review of the third edition of ''What is this Thing Called Science?'' in the newsletter of the Australasian Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (AAHPSSS), 2000.
1976 non-fiction books
English-language books
Philosophy of science books
Philosophy textbooks
University of Queensland Press books
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