Table of Contents

Preface C. Howson; 2. History of science and its rational reconstructions Imre Lakatos; 3. Atomism versus thermodynamics Peter Clark; 3. Thomas Young and the 'refutation' of Newtonian optics: a case study in the interaction of philosophy of science and history of science John Worrall; 4. Why did oxygen supplant phlogiston? Research programmes in the Chemical Revolution Alan Musgrave; 5. Why did Einstein's programme supersede Lorentz's? Elie Zahar; 6. The rejection of Avogadro's hypotheses Martin Frické; 7. On the critique of reason Paul Feyerabend; Index.

Promotional Information

This is a volume of studies on the problems of theory-appraisal in the physical sciences.