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  • © 2020

What I Do Not Believe, and Other Essays

Editors:

  • Offers readers a collection of Norwood Russell Hanson best work
  • Contains two new essays by Norwood Russell Hanson that are not available in the current literature
  • Covers topics such as Hanson's thinking on religious belief, theory, observation, cosmological theories

Part of the book series: Synthese Library (SYLI, volume 38)

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Table of contents (25 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xx
  2. Philosophy of Science

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. A Picture Theory of Theory-Meaning

      • Norwood Russell Hanson
      Pages 3-38
    3. On Elementary Particle Theory

      • Norwood Russell Hanson
      Pages 39-47
    4. Some Philosophical Aspects of Contemporary Cosmologies

      • Norwood Russell Hanson
      Pages 49-60
  3. History of Science

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 123-123
    2. Leverrier: The Zenith and Nadir of Newtonian Mechanics

      • Norwood Russell Hanson
      Pages 125-145
    3. The Trial of Galileo

      • Norwood Russell Hanson
      Pages 157-169
  4. General Philosophy

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 171-171
    2. On Being in Two Places at Once

      • Norwood Russell Hanson
      Pages 173-184
    3. Copernicus’ Rôle in Kant’s Revolution

      • Norwood Russell Hanson
      Pages 185-192
    4. It’s Actual, So It’s Possible

      • Norwood Russell Hanson
      Pages 193-202
    5. On Having the Same Visual Experiences

      • Norwood Russell Hanson
      Pages 203-211
    6. Mental Events Yet Again: Retrospect on Some Old Arguments

      • Norwood Russell Hanson
      Pages 213-230
  5. Logic

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 231-231
    2. Imagining the Impossible

      • Norwood Russell Hanson
      Pages 233-238
    3. On the Impossibility of Any Future Metaphysics

      • Norwood Russell Hanson
      Pages 239-248

About this book

Fifty years have passed since Norwood Russell Hanson's unexpected death, yet he remains an important voice in philosophy of science. This book is a revised and expanded edition of a collection of Hanson's essays originally published in 1971, edited by Stephen Toulmin and Harry Woolf. The new volume features a comprehensive introduction by Matthew Lund (Rowan University) and two new essays. The first is "Observation and Explanation: A Guide to Philosophy of Science", originally published as a posthumous book by Harper and Row. This essay, written near the end of Hanson’s life, represents his mature philosophy of science. The second new addition, Hanson's essay "The Trial of Galileo", is something of a "lost" work – it was only published in a small run collection on famous trials and was left out of the published lists of Hanson’s works. Ever the outspoken firebrand, Hanson found many lessons and warnings from Galileo's trial that were relevant to Cold War America.

This volume not only contains Hanson's best-known work in history and philosophy of science, but also highlights the breadth of his philosophical thought. Hanson balanced extreme versatility with a unified approach to conceptual and philosophical problems. Hanson's central insight is that philosophy and science both strive to render the world intelligible -- the various concepts central to our attempts to make sense of the world are interdependent, and cannot operate, or even be fully understood, independently. The essays included in this collection present Hanson's thinking on religious belief, theory, observation, meaning, cosmology, modality, logic, and philosophy of mind. This collection also includes Hanson's lectures on the theory of flight, Hanson's greatest passion.

Authors, Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of Philosophy and Religion Studies, Rowan University, Glassboro, USA

    Matthew D. Lund

  • (deceased), HAMDEN, USA

    Norwood Russell Hanson

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access