An introduction to the main topics of the philosophy of science and the moral and social reality of science. The author discusses the growth of knowledge of science, the status of scientific theories and their relationship to observational data and the nature of scientific explanations.

Part 1 Science as an intellectual activity: growth of knowledge; objectivity and the external world; prediction and explanation. Part 2 Induction: Baconian induction; presuppositionless observation; the role of imagination in scientific theorizing; inductive proof. Part 3 Falsification: Popperian philosophy of science; a Bayesian approach. Part 4 Science and non-science: the demarcation criterion; are theories ever falsified?; Kuhnian relativism; the relationship between the history and philosophy of science. Part 5 Observation and theory: observational common ground between theories; observation and theory; empiricism; unobservability and underdetermination of theory by data. Part 6 Scientific realism: positivism; the inference to best explanation; scientific laws and the representation of reality; the absolute view of the world; partial pictures - Schrodinger's cat. Part 7 Probability: probabilistic explanations; interpretations of probability. Part 8 Scientific reductions: reductions in the physical sciences; criteria for reduction. Part 9 Science and culture: science as mythology; myths and science; science and technology; science and value.

'This small paperback is a welcome addition to the current literature for philosophy of science classes. It covers a great variety of material, is up-to-date, and gives examples and references. The book is nicely organized into nine chapters, each leading into the next in a natural way. O'Hear's book fills a real need in the literature, offering an interesting and modern survey of philosophy of science. The book is sensitive to the depth and philosophical difficulty of the problems in philosophy of science. And O'hear has organized his book in a way which represents a refreshing departure from the worn out post-positivistic style of teaching philosophy of science.' Lila Luce, St. John's College, Annapolis, Philosophia, Philsoophical Quarterly of Israel, Vol. 23, Nos. 1-4, July '94