Science and Method

The philosophy of science as it is known today emerged out of a combination of three traditional concerns: the classification of the sciences, methodology and the philosophy of nature. Included in the series "Works in the Philosophy of Science 1830-1914" are all three of these interrelated areas. The titles should be of interest to both the philosopher of science and to the historian of ideas. The former will be able to trace present-day concerns back to their origins; the latter should find it a useful source for the study of Victorian conceptions of science. Henri Poincare here deals with a variety of issues of methodology: the selection of facts for study, the calculation of errors, and the use of statistical methods to compensate for errors. It also contains an attack on logicism in the foundations of mathematics, and an early account of the significance for methodology of the "new mechanics" of radioactive decay.