Common threads · 6 books
Induction, probability, inquiry, and scientific change. Ask why some evidence changes a belief while other evidence changes the whole framework.
Books, curator notes, and what to read next.
David Hume
Read Hume's treatment of causation and induction slowly. Separate habits of expectation from demonstrative proof.
Next: Fact, Fiction, and Forecast
Nelson Goodman
Use the grue puzzle to test why some patterns support predictions while other equally consistent patterns do not.
Next: An Introduction to Probability and Inductive Logic
Ian Hacking
Use the exercises to connect probability with decisions and evidence. Distinguish an inductive argument from a valid deduction.
Next: Logic: The Theory of Inquiry
John Dewey
Read inquiry as a response to a troubled situation. Trace how questions, evidence, and revised habits develop together.
Next: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Thomas S. Kuhn
Follow the contrast between normal science and revolutions. Ask how a change of framework changes the questions.
Next: Science as Social Knowledge
Helen E. Longino
Longino makes criticism within communities central to scientific objectivity. Ask what makes that criticism effective.
Also includes The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
What makes science scientific, and what do its successes tell us about reality? Read the disagreements as a conversation rather than a march of progress.
Also includes Logic: The Theory of Inquiry
A pragmatist conversation about inquiry, experience, pluralism, and values. Later books challenge earlier assumptions rather than simply continuing a doctrine.
Also includes Fact, Fiction, and Forecast
A practical route into arguments, formal logic, and inductive reasoning, ending with the places where logic meets language and self-reference.
