A Tale of Seven Scientists and a New Philosophy of Science

This book brings our attention to an aspect of science that is often obscured by human desire to pay attention only to the stars, and it is very much worth reading. Svetla Baykoucheva, American Chemical Society Chemical Information Bulletin Eric Scerri's evolutionary account of the growth of science is supported by a narrative of seven relatively obscure chemists and physicists who played a crucial role in developments in chemistry. Scerri aims to show that the so-called fantastic breakthroughs in science are in fact far less dramatic when juxtaposed with the important contributions of the many scientists written out of the standard histories of a discipline. Drawing on his vast knowledge of the history of chemistry, Scerri's book is a welcome addition to the growing body of literature in philosophy of science that aims to develop a general account of how scientific knowledge grows. K. Brad Wray, Professor of Philosophy, State University of New York, Oswego Eric Scerri's A Tale of Seven Scientists is wonderfully written and enjoyably provocative. Above all, it is a book by a man who truly loves science and wants to share his excitement and awe with others. It is informed about the science, and although Scerri disagrees with just about all of the philosophers he discusses, he does so for good reasons and with great respect for those with whom he differs. In turn, his book invites you to argue, perhaps to disagree, but above all to learn and to grow - in short, to do exactly what Scerri finds to be the key to scientific advance. Michael Ruse, Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University As a celebration of the forgotten little people who helped to establish the fundamental rules of atomic structure and chemical bonding, Scerri offers an important corrective to the common heroic narrative in which science is shaped only by intellectual giants. But it goes further, convincingly arguing that science is itself far from the systematic, logical engine it is often made out to be. It is, rather, an organic, gradual accumulation of knowledge by trial-and-error, in which mistakes and inconsistencies aren't just inevitable but necessary and fruitful. It's messy - but it works! Philip Ball, science writer for Nature, Chemistry World, The Guardian, author of Shapes, Nature's Patterns, a Tapestry in three Parts Scerri has written a stimulating study of the evolutionary development of science akin to a growing organism. The most significant challenge to the received view is the claim that scientific progress does not consist in theories being right or wrong but in their adaptation to their environments. This book continues the debate on the nature of scientific change in the great tradition of Popper, Kuhn and Lakatos. Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen, Philosopher, University of Oulu