Abstract

You are an unusual student. We'd be surprised if 1% of STEM majors (or even most philosophy majors) take a course in the philosophy of science. And this is an unusual book in three ways which we hope will provide a readable college text. First, most philosophy of science texts are written for philosophy majors. While this book will provide them with a solid foundation, our goal is to provide STEM majors with a relevant book. But why would they seek such a text? Imagine that there is an opera singer who hits every note, but she has no understanding of the composition. Is she truly a musician or just a performer? In German, a musiker has a deep understanding of music, while a musikant merely plays music. Understanding the philosophy of science is necessary to become a scientifiker rather than a scientifikant (these terms don't really exist but you get the idea)