ABSTRACT
There are many fundamental philosophical issues raised by science that can also be raised in science classrooms. Some of these philosophical features of science have been discussed in Chapter 4, when dealing with ‘Metaphysics and Air Pressure’, in Chapter 5, when dealing with ‘Philosophy in the Classroom’, in Chapter 6, when elaborating ‘Pendulum Motion’, and in Chapter 7, when elaborating ‘Priestley and Photosynthesis’, and others will be discussed in Chapter 11, when dealing with the ‘Nature of Science’. Pleasingly, philosophy does not have to be brought into science classrooms, as it is already there; it just needs to be identified and discussed in a way whereby students can themselves begin to appreciate the philosophical dimension of science and to take beginning steps in thinking philosophically; philosophy is not an added burden for teachers: it is part of the subject they teach. Any philosophy-of-science textbook, anthology or encyclopedia will, for example, have chapters on: theory change, experimentation, idealisation, scientific revolutions, laws, reduction, metaphor, analogy, models, causation, explanation, values, methodology, observation, truth, approximate truth and so on. These philosophical features can be identified and elaborated in the classroom when teaching routine topics such as evolution, genetics, oxidation, mechanics, relativity, electricity, paleontology, photosynthesis and so on. The features or aspects can appropriately be pointed to when students make enquiries, conduct experiments, collect data, propose and appraise hypotheses and so on.
