I would appreciate some recommendations on texts (for a layperson -- a nonprofessional philosopher) whose subject is the philosophy of science.

Comments

Perhaps start with a look at the entry "scientific explanation" in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-explanation).

After that, I would get started with three classics:

Sir Karl Popper: The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1959)

Ernest Nagel: The Structure of Science: Problems in the Logic of Scientific Explanation (1961)

Thomas Kuhn: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1970).

Paul Feyerabend's Against Method is extremely lively andinteresting, those perhaps more challenging than the others onThomas's list. If you are interested in an historical perspective,these two books are readable, interesting, and relatively concise:G.E.R. Lloyd, Early Greek Science; Herbert Butterfield, The Origins of Modern Science.

I'd start with some more modern books actually written for beginners, before tackling Popper, Nagel et al. Two that in my experience work well with students are Alan Chalmers' What is This Thing Called Science, and Alexander Bird's Philosophy of Science.

And I'll chime in with my favorite: Okasha, Samir (2002), Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press), which I think is a terrific survey and lives up to its title of being "very short". I'd also agree that it's probably best to look at a survey such as the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article, or something like Okasha's book, before diving into one of the classics.

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