CONTENTS
List of figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Part I: Fundamental Issues
1 Worldviews 5
2 Truth 7
3Empirical Facts and Philosophical/Conceptual Facts 32
4Confirming and Disconfirming Evidence and Reasoning38
5The Quine-Duhem Thesis and Implications for Scientific Method 46
6Philosophical Interlude: Problems and Puzzles of Induction 58
7Falsifiability 66
8Instrumentalism and Realism 71
Part II: The Transition from the Aristotelian Worldview
to the Newtonian Worldview 79
9 The Structure of the Universe on the Aristotelian Worldview 81
10 The Preface to Ptolemy's Almagest: The Earth as Spherical,Stationary, and at the Center of the Universe 87
11Astronomical Data: The Empirical Facts 99
12Astronomical Data: The Philosophical/Conceptual Facts 106
13The Ptolemaic System 113
14 The Copernican System 123
15The Tychonic System 134
16 Kepler's System 137
17 Galileo and the Evidence from the Telescope 148
18 A Summary of Problems Facing the Aristotelian Worldview 164
19 Philosophical and Conceptual Connections in the Development
of the New Science 170
20 Overview of the New Science and the Newtonian Worldview 175
21 Philosophical Interlude: What is a Scientific Law? 183
22 The Development of the Newtonian Worldview, 1700-1900 192
Part III: Recent Developments in Science and Worldviews 205
23 The Special Theory of Relativity 207
24 The General Theory of Relativity 227
25 Overview of the Empirical Facts, Mathematics, and
Interpretations of Quantum Theory 235
26 Quantum Theory and Locality: EPR, Bell's Theorem,
and the Aspect Experiments 272
27Overview of the Theory of Evolution 287
28Philosophical and Conceptual Implications of Evolution 310
29Worldviews: Concluding Thoughts 341
Chapter Notes and Suggested Reading 349
References 366
Index 371