Understanding Science: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues

Strahler ( Science and Earth History ) here admirably meets his goal of making the philosophy of science accessible to general readers. With a full appreciation for the limits of science, he is as willing to draw the epistomological line at 20th-century scientism as he is to create a friendly border with mysticism. He admits to his discussion such pseudosciences as parapsychology and creationism (although placing them under house arrest) to show how truly scientific thinking is easily debased. Although not offered as a textbook, this is a formal epistomology laced with precis of other works in the sociology of science. In the six chapters of the first section, ``Science--Once over Lightly,'' Strahler demonstrates how science interacts with religion, philosophy and logic and with its own history. While this organizational approach is less successful in the second section, ``Science and Other Knowledge Fields,'' this volume merits a high place on the popular science reading list. (Nov.)