This textbook presents the basics of philosophy that are necessary for the student and researcher in science in order to better understand scientific work. The approach is not historical but formative: tools for semantical analysis, ontology of science, epistemology, and scientific ethics are presented in a formal and direct way. The book has two parts: one with the general theory and a second part with application to some problems such as the interpretation of quantum mechanics, the nature of mathematics, and the ontology of spacetime. The book addresses questions such as "What is meaning?", "What is truth?", "What are truth criteria in science?", "What is a theory?", "What is a model?" "What is a datum?", "What is information?", "What does it mean to understand something?", "What is space?", "What is time?", "How are these concepts articulated in science?" "What are values?" "What are the limits of science?", and many more. The philosophical views presented are "scientific" in the sense that they are informed by current science, they are relevant for scientific research, and the method adopted uses the hypothetical-deductive approach that is characteristic of science. The results and conclusions, as any scientific conclusion, are open to revision in the light of future advances. Hence, this philosophical approach opposes to dogmatic philosophy. Supported by end-of-chapter summaries and a list of special symbols used, the material will be of interest for students and researchers in both science and philosophy. The second part will appeal to physicists and mathematicians.

These volumes collect a selection of papers presented at the Founding Conference of the European Philosophy of Science Association meeting in Madrid. The volumes provide an excellent overview of the state of the art in philosophy of science as practised nowadays in different European countries.

Visiting the Art Museum: A Journey Toward Participation is a book about the visitor experience. It is written as a companion for visitors to and inside the art museum. The volume engages readers in transforming a common experience, the museum visit, into a sophisticated epistemological inquiry. The study of the visitor experience through an epistemological approach consists of the untangling of the academic disciplines that study and inform each step of this experience: urban studies, architecture, design, art history, art education, and nonprofit management. This journey follows a transformative bottom-up trajectory from experiential to epistemological, and, finally, reveals itself as empowering. The book unfolds as an edited volume, with chapters by different authors who are enthusiastic scholars in each discipline and addresses undergraduate students as citizens, master’s students as professionals, and scholars as teachers and researchers. Each reader will discover a kaleidoscopic world made of ideas, values, and possibilities for participation.

In recent years a vast literature has been produced on the feasibility of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The topic most frequently discussed is the concept of intelligence, with efforts to demonstrate that it is or is not transferable to the computer. Only rarely has attention been focused on the concept of the artificial per se in order to clarify what kind, depth and scope of performance (including intelligence) it could support. Apart from the classic book by H.A. Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, published in 1969, no serious attempt has been made to define a conceptual frame for understanding the intimate nature of intelligent machines independently of its claimed or denied human-like features. The general aim of this book is to discuss, from different points of view, what we are losing and what we are gaining from the artificial, particularly from AI, when we abandon the original anthropomorphic pretension.

Is a genuine logic of scientific discovery possible? In the essays collected here, Hintikka not only defends an affirmative answer; he also outlines such a logic. It is the logic of questions and answers. Thus inquiry in the sense of knowledge-seeking becomes inquiry in the sense of interrogation. Using this new logic, Hintikka establishes a result that will undoubtedly be considered the fundamental theorem of all epistemology, viz., the virtual identity of optimal strategies of pure discovery with optimal deductive strategies. Questions to Nature, of course, must include observations and experiments. Hintikka shows, in fact, how the logic of experimental inquiry can be understood from the interrogative vantage point. Other important topics examined include induction (in a forgotten sense that has nevertheless played a role in science), explanation, the incommensurability of theories, theory-ladenness of observations, and identifiability.

This book presents a philosophical approach to probability and probabilistic thinking, considering the underpinnings of probabilistic reasoning and modeling, which effectively underlie everything in data science. The ultimate goal is to call into question many standard tenets and lay the philosophical and probabilistic groundwork and infrastructure for statistical modeling. It is the first book devoted to the philosophy of data aimed at working scientists and calls for a new consideration in the practice of probability and statistics to eliminate what has been referred to as the "Cult of Statistical Significance".

Jaan Valsiner has made numerous contributions to the development of psychology over the last 40 years. He is internationally recognized as a leader and innovator within both developmental psychology and cultural psychology, and has received numerous prizes for his work: the Alexander von Humboldt prize, the Hans Killian prize, and the Outstanding International Psychologist Award from the American Psychological Association. Having taught at Universities in Europe, Asia and north and south America, he is currently Niels Bohr professor at Aalborg University, Denmark.

This broad and thought-provoking volume provides an overview of recent intellectual and scientific advances that intersect psychiatry and neuroscience, offering a wide range of penetrating insights in both disciplines.