Agazzi, Evandro. ed. The Problem of Reductionism in Science. Dordrecht, NL: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991.
Alexander, Denis. Beyond Science. Philadelphia and New York: A. J.
Holman Company, 1972.
An early 1970's book discussing the attacks taking place on science and its
methods. From today's view one may see many of the rudiments of the arguments
that have taken the more formal descriptions in postmodern thought.
Appleyard, Bryan. Understanding the Present: Science and the Soul of Modern Man. London: Picador, 1992.
Barbour, Ian. Myths, Models and Paradigms. Harper & Rowe, 1974.
Barnes, Barry. Scientific Knowledge and Sociological Theory. London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1974.
One of the founding works of the strong program, which holds that theories in
science are social constructions, negotiated by power groups.
Barrow, John D. Between Inner Space and Outer Space. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1999.
Reality in microworld, macroworld evaluated on cosmological scales.
Barrow, John D. The Book of Nothing: Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas
about the Origins of the Universe. New York: Pantheon Books, 2000.
A highly readable and informative exposition of fundamental considerations in
Mathematics and contemporary science. An extensive collection of topics all
related to the notion of nothing.
Barrow, John D. The World Within the World. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1988.
Discusses the origins of the concept of laws of Nature together with their characteristics.
Blum, Harold F. Time's Arrow and Evolution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1951.
Brams, S. Superior Beings: If They Exist How Would We Know?
New York: Springer, 1983.
Novel application of 2-person game theory to analyse many fundamental philosophical
and theological questions about the nature of reality.
Braude, Stephen E. The Limits of Influence: Psychokinesis and the Philosophy of Science. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986.
Burtt, E. A. The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science. Revised edition. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1989.
Cartwright, Nancy. Nature's Capacities and Their Measurements. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1994.
Cartwright, Nancy. The Dappled World: A Study of the Boundaries of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1999.
Casti, John L., Anders Karqvist. eds. Beyond Belief: Randomness, Prediction
and Explanation in Science. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 1991.
A collection of essays from a conference held in Sweden in 1989 basically dealing
with the topic "Can we predict/explain the phenomena of nature and everyday
life?"
Casti, John L. Paradigms Lost. New York, NY: Harper's, 1989.
A look at what we really know about major scientific views.
Casti, John L. Paradigms Lost Revisited. New York, NY: Harper's, 2000.
Casti, John L. Paradigms Regained: A Further Exploration of the Mysteries of Modern Science. Perennial, 2001.
Causey, R. The Unity of Science. Dordrecht: North Holland, 1977.
Churchland, P., M. Hooker. eds. Images of Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
Davies, Paul. God and the New Physics. New York: Touchstone, 1983.
Davies, Paul. The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.
Davies, Paul. The Mind of God: Science and the Search for Ultimate Meaning. London: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 1992.
Earman, John. Bangs, Crunches, Whimpers, and Shrieks: Singularities and
Acausation in Relativity Spacetimes. New York: Oxford University Press,
1995.
Reconciles Relativity Theory with Theism.
Edelman, Gerald, Giulio Tononi. A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination. New York: Basic Books, 2000.
Einstein, Albert. Ideas and Opinions. New York: Crown, 1952.
Feinberg, Gerald. The Prometheus Project. New York, NY: Anchor, 1969.
Ferré, Frederick. Hellfire and Lightning Rods: Liberating Science, Technology, and Religion. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993.
Feyerabend, Paul K. Against Method. Verso. 1993.
Fine, Arthur. The Shaky Game: Einstein, Realism, and the Quantum Theory.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.
Fine dismissses both realism and anti-realism in favor of what he calls the
"natural ontological attitude" (NOA), acceptance of theoretical entities
(particles for instance) allegedly without any philosophical commitment.
Gillispie, Charles. The Edge of Objectivity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1960.
Gould, Stephen J. Time's Arrow/Time's Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988.
Guthke, Karl Siegfried. The Last Frontier: Imagining Other Worlds, from the Copernican Revolution to Modern Science Fiction. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990.
Hausmann, Daniel M. Causal Asymetries. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1998.
The first comprehensive treatment of causal asymmetries, showing hidden connections
between apparently unrelated aspects of causation.
Hempel, Carl Gustav. Philosophy of Natural Science.
New York: Prentice Hall, 1966.
A highly-regarded introduction to the philosophy of science.
Holder, Rodney D. Nothing but Atoms and Molecules?: Probing the Limits of Science. Tunbridge Wells: Monarch Publications, 1993.
Holton, Gerald. Science and Anti-Science. Cambrige, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.
Husserl, Edmund. Thing and Space. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998.
Deals with worlds of natural experience and scientific theories.
Iain, Paul. Science, Theology, and Einstein. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Jaki, Stanley L. Science and Creation: From Eternal Cycles to an Oscillating Universe. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1974.
Johnson, George. Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith, and the Search for Order. New York: Vintage Books (Random House), 1995.
Johnson, Phillip E. Reason in the Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law and Education. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995.
Kitcher, Philip, Wesley C. Salmon. Scientific Explanation. Minneapolis,
MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1989.
A collection of essays by top scholars in the field, including Kitcher's seminal
paper on explanation as unification.
Kuhn, Thomas S. The Road Since Structure. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago
Press, 2000.
An important collection Kuhn's essays after the publication of the Structure
of Scientific Revolution.
Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.
In this, the most widely read and cited history of science
work of the 20th century, Kuhn effectively demonstrates that the nature of science
can be understood primarily through its historical contingencies.
Lakatos, Imre, Alan Musgrave. eds. Criticism and the
Growth of Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
The classic confrontation between Karl Popper's logic of science and Thomas
Kuhn's historical theory. The volume contains Lakatos' seminal essay on scientific
research programs.
Lakatos, Imre. Proofs and Refutations: The Logic of Mathematical Discovery. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1987.
Lakatos, Imre. The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994.
Laudan, Larry. Progress and Its Problems: Towards a Theory of Scientific
Growth. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1977.
One of the most influential books in modern philosophy of science. Laudan argues
that success of scientific theories is to be measured by their capacity to solve
problems: not being true or well-confirmed.
Leplin, J., ed. Scientific Realism. Berkeley: Univ.
of California Press, 1984.
An anthology of philosophical arguments for and against realism.
Leslie, J. The End of the World: The Science and Ethics of Human Extinction. London: Routledge, 1996.
Lestienne, Rémy. The Children of Time: Causality, Entropy, Becoming. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1995.
Lipton, Peter. Inference to the Best Explanation. London: Routledge, 1991.
Losee, John. A Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Science.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Very readable, accessible to non-specialists. Author traces views of scientific
method from Aristotle to contemporary thinkers.
Mach, Ernst. The Science of Mechanics. La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishing Co., 1989.
Magnum, Juon P. ed. The New Faith-Science Debate: Probing Cosmology, Technology, and Theology. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1989.
Margenau, Henry. ed. Integrative Principles of Modern Thought. New York: Gordon and Breach, 1972.
McMullin, Ernan. The Inference That Makes Science. Marquette University Press, 1992.
Moreland, James P. Christianity and the Nature of Science: A Philosophical Investigation. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1989.
Munitz, Milton Karl. Cosmic Understanding:
Philosophy and Science of the Universe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 1986.
A distinguished secular philosopher here argues that the modern cosmological
“myths” argues for the existence of an unknowable transcendence beyond the universe.
Murchie, Guy. The Seven Mysteries of Life. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1978.
Newton, Isaac. The Principia. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1995.
Newton, Isaac. Newton's Philosophy of Nature: Selections from His Writings. Edited by H. S. Thayer. London: Collier Macmillan Publisheres, 1953.
Newton-Smith, W. H. A Companion to the Philosophy of Science. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2000.
Newton-Smith, W. H. The Rationality of Science. London: Routledge,
1990.
The author argues for a realist view of scientific truth and critcizes some
leading anti-realist philosophers, especially Larry Laudan.
Niiniluoto, I. Critical Scientific Realism. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999.
Numbers, Ronald. Creation by Natural Law: Laplace's Nebular Hypothesis in American Thought. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1977.
Papineau, David. The Philosophy of Science. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1996.
A collection of some of the best contemporary papers on realism in science,
the view that theories are approximately true and/or that theoretical entities—such
as electrons—really exist.
Penrose, Roger, Abner Shimony, Nancy Cartwright, Stephen Hawking. The Large,
the Small and the Human Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
This work is a continuation of Penrose's philosophical conceptions of physical
reality, expressed in his previous well-known books The Emperor's New Mind
(1989) and Shadows of the Mind (1994) and contains critical remarks by
A. Shimony, N. Cartwright and S. Hawking on Penrose's philosophy of physical
reality.
Pickover, Clifford. Keys to Infinity. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995.
Poincaré, Henri. Science and Hypothesis. New York: Dover Publications,
1952.
An English translation of Herni Poincaré, La Science Et L'hypothese.
Paris, 1906.
Polanyi, Michael. Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1964.
Polanyi, Michael. The Tacit Dimension. Garden City, NY: Doubleday
Anchor, 1967.
Polanyi points out the superficiality of all views of scientific knowledge that
leave out the ineradicable personal character of all knowing; simultaneously,
he carries out a rigorous refutation of biological reductionism.
Popper, Karl. The Logic of Scientific Discovery. London: Routledge,
1992.
Contains Popper's famous argument that scientific theories must be falsifiable.
Putnam, Hilary. Realism and Reason. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1983.
Putnam supports a realist view of scientific theories, that successful theories
in some sense approach truth.
Ragin, John C. Quantum Mechanics, Consciousness, and Ultimate Reality: Relative-Idealism, a New Interpretation. Phoenix, AZ: Arizona State University, 1995.
Ratzsch, Del. Science and Its Limits: The Natural Sciences in Christian
Perspective. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000.
A clearly written introduction to contemporary views of science which also addresses
questions of concern to Christians, such as (alleged) challenges to Chrisitan
belief from the sciences.
Rescher, Nicholas. Scientific Realism: A Critical Reappraisal. Dordrect: Reidel, 1987.
Robinson, Howard. Matter and Sense: A Critique of Contemporary Materialism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Rowlands, Mark. Supervenience and Materialism. Aldershot, UK: Avebury, 1995.
Rucker, Rudy. Infinity and the Mind. Boston: Birkhauser, 1982.
Russell, C.A. Cross-Currents: Interactions Between Science and Faith. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1985.
Sagan, Carl. Pale Blue Dot. New York, NY: Random House, 1994.
Salmon, Wesley C. Causality and Explanation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Salmon, Wesley C. Four Decades of Scientific Explanations. Minneapolis,
MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1990.
A clear account of the search for a generally acceptable theory of the structure
of scientific explanations.
Sosa, Ernest, Michael Tooley. Causation. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Recent papers on philosophical problems about causation.
Talbot, Michael. Mysticism and the New Physics. London, UK: Arkana, 1992.
Tasic, Vladimir. Mathematics and the Roots of Postmodern Thought.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Informative and well presented material elucidating the "antagonism between
two vaguely conceived entities, colloquially labeled 'science' and 'postmodernism.'"
Thaxton, Charles B., Nancy R. Pearcey. The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural Philosophy. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1994.
Thuan, Trinh Xuan. Chaos and Harmony: Perspectives on Scientific Revolutions of the Twentieth Century. New York, NY, 2001.
Toolan, David. At Home in the Cosmos. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2001.
Toulmin, Stephen. Foresight and Understanding: An Enquiry Into the Aims of Science. New York: Harper Torch Books, 1961.
Trigg, Roger. Rationality and Science: Can Science Explain Everything?
Cambridge: Blackwell, 1993.
Defends a realist position against relativism as the only basis for trusting
science. Notes that science cannot explain everything, but needs a metaphysical
foundation.
Van der Meer, Jitse M. ed. Facets of Faith and Science: Volume 2: The Role of Beliefs in Mathematics and the Natural Sciences: An Augustinian Perspective. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, Inc., 1996.
Van der Meer, Jitse M. ed. Facets of Faith and Science: Volume 3: The Role of Beliefs in the Natural Sciences. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, Inc., 1996.
Van der Merwe, Alwyn. ed. Old and New Questions in Physics, Cosmology, Philosophy, and Theoretical Biology. New York: Plenum Press, 1983.
Van Fraassen, Bas C. The Scientific Image. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.
Van Fraassen, Bas C. Laws and Symmetry. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.
A sustained argument for his anti-realist view that scientific theories need
only be "empirically adequate," true of observable entities.
Westfall, Richard S. The Construction of Modern Science: Mechanisms and Mechanics. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1977.
Whitehead, Alfred N. The Concept of Nature: The Tarner Lectures. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1964.
Wilber, Ken. The Holographic Paradigm and Other Paradoxes: Exploring the Leading Edge of Science. Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1982.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1988.
Ziman, John. Reliable Knowledge: An Exploration of the Grounds for Belief in Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.