science

List of philosophers of science

List of philosophers of science is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of philosophers of science rather than just read about it. In short: This is a chronological list of philosophers of science. For an alphabetical name-list, see Category:Philosophers of science.

Key takeaways

List of philosophers of science belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect List of philosophers of science to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of List of philosophers of science from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

This is a chronological list of philosophers of science. For an alphabetical name-list, see Category:Philosophers of science.

Before the 19th century Roger Bacon Sir Francis Bacon Galileo Galilei David Hume

19th century Auguste Comte William Whewell George Henry Lewes William Stanley Jevons Ernst Mach Charles Sanders Peirce Edmund Husserl Frederich Engels

1900–1930 Nikola Tesla Henri Poincaré Pierre Duhem Niels Bohr Albert Einstein Bertrand Russell Frank P. Ramsey Moritz Schlick John Dewey Alfred North Whitehead

1930–1960 Alfred Ayer Mario Bunge Hans Reichenbach Georges Canguilhem Noam Chomsky Kenneth Craik Alexandre Koyré Sir Karl Popper Rudolf Carnap Michael Polanyi Otto Neurath Carl Gustav Hempel Paul Oppenheim Gaston Bachelard R. B. Braithwaite Werner Heisenberg Taketani Mitsuo Stephen Toulmin

1960–1980 David Bloor David Bohm Paul Feyerabend Hartry Field Mary Hesse Thomas Kuhn Imre Lakatos Ernest Nagel Mordechai Nessyahu Hilary Putnam W.V. Quine Michael Ruse Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker

1980–present Peter Achinstein David Albert Jeffrey A. Barrett Roy Bhaskar Maarten Boudry Richard Boyd Arturo Carsetti Nancy Cartwright David Castle Anjan Chakravartty Alan Chalmers Hasok Chang Patricia Churchland Paul Churchland Daniel Dennett John Dupré John Earman Bas van Fraassen Ronald Giere Peter Godfrey-Smith Rebecca Goldstein Adolf Grünbaum Susan Haack Ian Hacking Donna Haraway Sandra Harding Michał Heller Jaakko Hintikka Paul Hoyningen-Huene Philip Kitcher Ursula Klein Larry Laudan John Lennox Isaac Levi Peter Lipton Helen Longino Elisabeth Lloyd Tim Maudlin Deborah Mayo Ernan McMullin Peter Medawar Sandra Mitchell John E. Murdoch Nancey Murphy Basarab Nicolescu Massimo Pigliucci John Polkinghorne Stathis Psillos Hilary Putnam Benedict Rattigan Alexander Rosenberg Oliver Sacks Wesley C. Salmon Eric Scerri Kristin Shrader-Frechette Lawrence Sklar Brian Skyrms Quentin Smith Elliott Sober Miriam Solomon Wolfgang Stegmüller Kim Sterelny David Stove Patrick Suppes Claudine Tiercelin Roberto Torretti John Worrall

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of philosophers of science

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of philosophers of science claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of philosophers of science before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of philosophers of science ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of philosophers of science

In research: List of philosophers of science appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of philosophers of science in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of philosophers of science is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Lists of philosophers, Philosophers of science, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of philosophers of science outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study List of philosophers of science in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what List of philosophers of science means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain List of philosophers of science out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is List of philosophers of science in simple terms?

This is a chronological list of philosophers of science. For an alphabetical name-list, see Category:Philosophers of science.

Why does List of philosophers of science matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of philosophers of science?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on List of philosophers of science.