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Rating: 
Summary: A unique product of a unique collaberation
Review: Is this book still relevant, despite being a bit old? The answer is
an unqualified YES. Why is this book the best introduction to the
philosophy of science ever written? Because it is the result of a
collaberation between Rudolf Carnap (a philosophical giant) and Martin
Gardner--the celebrated columnest who gave us so many years of
"Mathematical games," during Scientific American's golden years.Because it was co-written by a professional writer of popular
mathematics, it is probably the only philosophy of science book which
can be read and understood by the interested lay person. But because
it is based on a series of lecture notes from one of the worlds
all-time great philosophers of science, it doesn't "wimp out" on the
technical level. If you read it you will be brought to the forefront
of philosophy of science, at least as understood by the later logical
positivists. In short, a remarkable collaberation by two men who were at the top of
their game. Thank God for Dover. For ten bucks you can buy a priceless
book.
Rating:
Summary: A unique product of a unique collaberation
Review: Is this book still relevant, despite being a bit old? The answer is
an unqualified YES. Why is this book the best introduction to the
philosophy of science ever written? Because it is the result of a
collaberation between Rudolf Carnap (a philosophical giant) and Martin
Gardner--the celebrated columnest who gave us so many years of
"Mathematical games," during Scientific American's golden years. Because it was co-written by a professional writer of popular
mathematics, it is probably the only philosophy of science book which
can be read and understood by the interested lay person. But because
it is based on a series of lecture notes from one of the worlds
all-time great philosophers of science, it doesn't "wimp out" on the
technical level. If you read it you will be brought to the forefront
of philosophy of science, at least as understood by the later logical
positivists. In short, a remarkable collaberation by two men who were at the top of
their game. Thank God for Dover. For ten bucks you can buy a priceless
book.
Rating:
Summary: a great introduction to the philosophy of science
Review: This is perhaps the only book in which Carnap is almost invariably informal. It is a remarkably clear introduction to some important topics in the philosophy of science: the nature of scientific laws, probability, scientific measurement, the structure of space, causality and determinism, theoretical concepts and laws, and a last chapter called "beyond determinism". The point where Carnap gets a bit formal, sections 26-28, is boring and absolutely out of date; his approach to analyticity is certainly not the best available. As for the rest, Carnap's conceptions are generally reliable (although it should be observed that his "logical conception" programme for probability was a complete failure). The sections I enjoyed most are those which deal with the structure of space. Carnap is highly proficient there (Carnap's doctoral dissertation was called "Der Raum") and his philosophical observations are always lucid and precise.
Rating:
Summary: excellent read on why Science works the way it does
Review: This is probably the clearest account of the way Science works and why certain decisions are made. Within it is contained the clearest explanation of portions of General Relativity (as a concrete example of why Einstein presented the theory in the manner he did) I've ever read, as well as many other little interesting tidbits. Some parts of the book are a bit dry, but that is probably because this book is a rewriting of college lecture notes given by the author.
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