Best Introductions to PoS

The Applying Philosophy of Science thread just jumped into debate without providing introductory material. Here are a few favorite introductions:

*Philosophy of Science : The Central Issues, J. A. Cover (Editor), Martin Curd (Editor): Great collection of original papers in PoS. Somewhat technical, but comprehensive.
*Representing and Intervening: Introductory Topics in the Philosophy of Natural Science, Ian Hacking: Hacking 's book is surprisingly readable and deep, with an emphasis on experimentation.

Here is a decent broad overview.

Other recommendations and links?

I noticed your frustration at the lack of debaters joining you in the applying thread (other than those intent on convincing you that the field you have a degree in is intellectually bankrupt), so I decided I'd shore up my own knowledge to be better equipped in the future.

I picked up Philosophy of Science: The Link Between Science and Philosophy by Philipp Frank and am going to sandwich it in to the top of my reading list. I'll post my thoughts after reading.

I don't actually have a strong suggestion here, as I've gotten most of my Phil. of science from primary sources, but just one word of caution about Frank. Although I bet that book is pretty good, and I bet you'll learn a lot, it may be a bit outdated. Frank, as an logical empiricist, represents a school of thought that's mostly dried up and philosophy of science is much changed since the time of the logical empiricists.

For other folks, I think the best way to learn about the philosophy of science is to first learn about philosophy more generally, since many issues in POS are just narrower versions of more basic questions in metaphysics and epistemology.

Besides that, it's worth getting acquainted with the tradition of scientific philosophy (which is in some sense distinct from actual philosophy of science) starting with Russell and Frege and moving up through the Quine. Basically the issues of the first half of the 20th century have set the agenda for our current concerns in a way that one should be aware of and conversant with.

After saying all that, if you just want an introductory philosophy of science text to walk you through the basic issues, I think the best thing to do is find the most current intro volume available from Routledge, Blackwells, or Oxford. If you want a collection of important/influential articles, MIT has a nice big volume edited by Boyd, Gasper, and Trout that's got all the heavy hitters.

NoLongerAtEase,

Good suggestions. The Philosophy of Science, Richard Boyd, Philip Gasper, J.D. Trout is an excellent volume and it is cheaper than the Cover & Curd text.

Ah nuts... I should have looked at the publication date...

Oh well. Surely it won't be for nothing.

Rereading a bit of the Hacking text reminded me of how opinionated and idiosyncratic it is about realism (he is a fan) and rationality (not so much). James Fetzer's Philosophy of Science (Paragon Issues in Philosophy) is a more traditional, concise, analytic text, outlining theories of inference, laws, probability and explanation.

Has anyone read Theory and Reality : An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (Science and Its Conceptual Foundations series) by Peter Godfrey-Smith, or Introduction to the Philosophy of Science: Cutting Nature at Its Seams by Robert Klee? How are they?

Interesting introduction to the life of Karl Popper here:

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-30286492_ITM

You will need to give them the name of your local library and your zip code.

I found What is this Thing Called Science? by A. F. Chalmers to be an outstanding introduction.

Ditto on Chalmers. Esp. 3rd addition -- where the author "forgets what the cat on the cover means"

Then there is always John Losee's A historical introduction to the philosophy of science, a surprisingly acceptable, if not dry, diachronic introduction.

Of interest may be also:
Defending Science by Susan Haack