Franklin begins with an account of the nature of evidence, where science imitates but extends commonsense and legal reasoning in basing conclusions solidly on inductive reasoning from facts. After a brief survey of the furniture of the world as science sees it Franklin reveals colorful examples of discoveries in the natural, mathematical, and social sciences and the reasons for believing them. He examines the limits of science, giving special attention both to mysteries that may be solved by science, such as the origin of life, and those that may in principle be beyond the reach of science, such as the meaning of ethics. --from publisher description
CONTENT
Evidence -- Enemies of science: early -- Enemies of science: postmodernist -- The furniture -- The physical sciences -- Biology and cognition -- Mathematics -- Enemies of mathematics -- The formal sciences -- Probabilities and risks -- Are the social sciences 'sciences'? -- Actually existing science -- The complexity obstacle to knowledge -- Is that all there is?
