The articles in this volume deal with the main inferential methods that can be applied to different kinds of experimental evidence. These contributions - accompanied with critical comments - by renowned scholars in the field of philosophy of science aim at removing the traditional opposition between inductivists and deductivists. They explore the different methods of explanation and justification in the sciences in different contexts and with different objectives.
The volume contains contributions on methods of the sciences, especially on induction, deduction, abduction, laws, probability and explanation, ranging from logic, mathematics, natural to the social sciences. They present a highly topical pluralist re-evaluation of methodological and foundational procedures and reasoning, e.g. focusing in Bayesianism and Artificial Intelligence.
They document the second international conference in Vienna on "Induction and Deduction in the Sciences" as part of the Scientific Network on "Historical and Contemporary Perspectives of Philosophy of Science in Europe", funded by the European Science Foundation (ESF).

Inhalt

Induction and Deduction in the Philosophy of Science: a Critical Account since the Methodenstreit.- Historicizing Deduction: Scientific Method, Critical Debate, and the Historian.- Inference to the Best Theory, rather than Inference to the Best Explanation - Kinds of Abduction and Induction.- The Significance of Explanatory Considerations.- Truth-seeking by Abduction.- Inference to the Best Explanation and Bayesianism.- Adaptive Logics and the Integration of Induction and Deduction.- Argument, Inference and Reasoning - Integrating Induction and Deduction.- Laws are Persistent Inductive Schemes.- Physical Intuition as Inductive Support.- Frege, Neo-Logicism and Applied Mathematics.- Remarks About a "General Science of Reasoning".- Two Questions About the Revival of Frege's Programme.- Handling Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence, and the Bayesian Controversy.- Artificial Intelligence and Its Methodological Implications.- Supplying Planks for Neurath's Boat: Can Economists Meet the Demands of the Dynamics of Scientific Theories?.- Informational Economy and Creativity.- The Place of the Notion of Corroboration in Karl Popper's Philosophy of Science.- How can a Falsified Theory Remain Corroborated ?.- Inductivism in 19th Century German Economics.- The Uniformity of Nature: What Purpose does it Serve?.- Planning, Democratization and Popularization with ISOTYPE, ca. 1945: a Study of Otto Neurath's Pictorial Statistics with the Example of Bilston, England.- Reviews.- Activities 2003.- Preview 2004.- Remembering Dick Jeffrey (1926-2002) (Maria Carla Galavotti).- Index of Names.