History & Philosophy of Science
Please read to the end of Chapter 8 in the textbook, “Worldviews.
1- Explain in detail each of the following terms that are discussed in Chapters 5 to 8: confirmation reasoning, disconformation reasoning, deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, Quine-Duhem thesis, falsifiability, instrumentalism, realism.
Read the attached four articles.
2- Which, if any, of the following concepts are implicitly referred to by the authors of the four articles: confirmation reasoning, disconformation reasoning, deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, Quine-Duhem thesis, falsifiability, instrumentalism, Provide specific quotations and references to page and paragraph and detailed analysis of each point made in these articles that you use in your answers. Are any of the above concepts crucial to the concept of scientific truth held by each of the four article authors? What additional or alternative concepts are key to the worldviews of these four authors?
3- Do either Rovelli or de Haro make compelling cases for the importance to progress in physics of a philosophy of physics? If they succeed in doing so, how do they succeed? If they fail, why do they fail?
4- Do Einstein and/or Weinberg convincingly argue that a philosophy of physics is of no such importance.
