A Philosophical Approach to MOND

David Merritt was a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and before that at Rutgers University, New Jersey, whose research interests include galaxy dynamics and evolution, supermassive black holes, and computational astrophysics. He is a former Chair of the Division on Dynamical Astronomy of the American Astronomical Society and is a founding member of the Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation at RIT. He is author of the graduate textbook Dynamics and Evolution of Galactic Nuclei (2013).

• Preface; 1. The epistemology of science; 2. The methodology of scientific research programs; 3. The Milgromian research program; 4. Theory variant T0: the foundational postulates; 5. Theory variant T1: a non-relativistic Lagrangian; 6. Theory variant T2: a relativistic theory; 7. Theory variant T3: a modified hard core; 8. Convergence; 9. Summary / final thoughts; References; Index.

'This book gives a very careful analysis of the relation of theory to observational confirmation in astrophysics and cosmology, using as a case study the succession of MOND models proposed by Milgrom. Using Lakatos's approach, which is contrasted with Popper's proposals, the book focuses with exemplary clarity on the question of to what extent theories can be taken to be validated by observational tests. This is a great contribution to the philosophy of cosmology, which will also make the reader appreciate the strength of Milgrom's theory in terms of having, in advance, made predictions which were subsequently confirmed.' George F. R. Ellis, University of Cape Town