ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces you to an area of philosophy called philosophy of science. Philosophy of science takes science as its main topic and focus. Science can provide the springboard for a variety of philosophical reflections, in at least two different ways.
We can ask questions such as: What is science? What counts as scientific knowledge? How do our scientific theories track nature?
We can ask more specific questions about specific branches of science (say, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, psychology, economics, and so forth). For example, one may want to know what the nature of spacetime is, according to our current best physical theories. Or, how we classify biological species and how we should think about them. Or, how effective randomized controlled trials are for testing new drugs in medicine, and so forth.
Philosophy of science, broadly understood, encompasses both kinds of questions, although the second kind of questions falls under the remit of specific branches of philosophy of science, such as philosophy of physics, philosophy of biology, philosophy of medicine, among others.