Scientific Thinking

Scientific Thinking is a practical guide to inductive reasoning - the sort of reasoning that is commonly used in scientific activity, whether such activity is performed by a scientist, a political pollster, or any one of us informally on a day-to-day basis. The book provides comprehensive coverage in twenty-three chapters divided into three parts: "Induction, Proportions and Correlations," "Explanations," and "Cause." Martin's text is wide-ranging but it is also concise and extremely accessible. Indeed, the book confounds those who would think that a discussion of such topics must be dry-as-dust. Martin begins with an account of Galileo making a telescope for himself and discovering the moons of Jupiter, and subsequent topics include "Bathtubs and Dreams," "Correlations between Snoring and Obesity" and "The Grue Emerald." If this text makes clear that the topic need not be at all boring, it also underlines the real importance of acquiring an understanding of habits of scientific thinking. Many of the examples are given an extended discussion, and many are descriptions of real-life cases of research into both the pure sciences and the social sciences. Also included is an extremely wide range of stimulating questions and exercises.