Abstract

As Lucas explains in the preface, his book is based on the lectures he gave to first-year students reading Physics and Philosophy or Mathematics and Philosophy at Oxford. It emerges as a self-contained, well-argued, and lucid introduction to the philosophy of science. Lucas leads the reader on a path that avoids the dangers of both extreme rationalism and radical empiricism. For him the principles of natural philosophy are more complex and less coherent than either the deductive rationalism of Plato or the radical empiricism of modern times suggests.