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The Nature of Scientific Thinking

On Interpretation, Explanation and Understanding

  • Book
  • © 2014

Overview

Authors:
  1. Jan Faye

    1. Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
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  2. Forms of Understanding

    • Jan Faye
    Pages 1-23

  3. Understanding as Organized Beliefs

    • Jan Faye
    Pages 24-59

  4. On Interpretation

    • Jan Faye
    Pages 60-84

  5. Representations

    • Jan Faye
    Pages 85-113

  6. Scientific Explanation

    • Jan Faye
    Pages 114-135

  7. Causal Explanations

    • Jan Faye
    Pages 136-161

  8. Other Types of Explanations

    • Jan Faye
    Pages 162-182

  9. The Pragmatics of Explanation

    • Jan Faye
    Pages 183-209

  10. Not Just Why-questions

    • Jan Faye
    Pages 210-240

  11. A Rhetorical Approach to Explanation

    • Jan Faye
    Pages 241-269

  12. Pluralism and the Unity of Science

    • Jan Faye
    Pages 270-288

  13. Back Matter

    Pages 289-333
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Keywords

About this book

Scientific thinking must be understood as an activity. The acts of interpretation, representation, and explanation are the cognitive processes by which scientific thinking leads to understanding. The book explores the nature of these processes and describes how scientific thinking can only be grasped from a pragmatic perspective.

Reviews

“The Nature of Scientific Thinking provides a valuable resource both for those who share his basic strategy–who will find many topics to take up–and for those who do not–who will be able to identify where disagreement stems from. … provides a stimulating framework for thinking about these questions. It should be of interest both to those who tackle questions related to explanation from pragmatic approaches and to those working within formal-logical or ontic approaches.” (Lina Jansson, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 29 (2), 2015)

In sum, The Nature of Scientific Thinking offers a wide-ranging perspective on the natural sciences. Faye presents his views in discussion with existing accounts of explanation, understanding, representation and interpretation, and illustrates his theses with many detailed examples from a variety of disciplines.

-Henk W. de Regt, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

The book is very readable and informative and contains stimulating ideas. But the most valuable aspect is the convincing way in which the author argues in favour of a contextual-rhetorical approach to explanation.

-Xavier de Donato Rodríguez, Metascience

There is much to praise in Faye's book, especially his facility with examples from various sciences, including physics, biology, and zoology. He masterfully keeps within the parameters of his argument regarding scientific explanation without expanding his range too widely.

-Mark Tschaepe, Philosophy in Review

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

    Jan Faye

About the author

Jan Faye is a philosopher of science at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He has written and edited a number of books in English as well as in Danish. Recently, he published After Postmodernism (2012), a book about the philosophy of the humanities, in which he argues that a pragmatic-naturalist understanding of humanistic research overcomes the traditional split in our views of the natural sciences and the humanities.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Nature of Scientific Thinking

  • Book Subtitle: On Interpretation, Explanation and Understanding

  • Authors: Jan Faye

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137389831

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave Religion & Philosophy Collection, Philosophy and Religion (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Jan Faye 2014

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-38982-4Published: 09 April 2014

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-38983-1Published: 15 October 2016

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIV, 333

  • Topics: Philosophy of Science, Epistemology

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