Philosophy of Science

Rani Lill Anjum is a Research Professor of Philosophy at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.Elena Rocca is Associate Professor at the Department of Life Sciences and Health at Oslo Metropolitan University.

• Part I: What’s so special about science? Defining science.- 1. What counts as scientific knowledge?.- 2. Should science be defined by its methodology?.- 3. Is science defined by its community?.- 4. Is science defined by power?.- Part II: Why science cannot ignore philosophy; Philosophical bias in science.- 5. Conflicting evidence and the bias that science cannot avoid.- 6. Does science uncover or construct truths?; Bias about observation.- 7. Understanding and analysing complexity; Bias about processes and things.- 8. Scientific methods and causal evidencing; Bias about causality.- 9. Defining and assessing risk; Bias about values and probability.- Part III: What then when experts disagree?; Applying philosophy to scientific controversy.- 10. Philosophical analysis of some cases of disagreement.

“I must note that most examples in the book come from the life sciences, something that I personally very much appreciated. … This is a very interesting and useful book. I find the focus on and the analysis of implicit biases in science very important and very relevant both for doing science and for science education. This is a book that I believe both scientists and science educators should carefully read and think about.” (Kostas Kampourakis, Science & Education, January 17, 2025)