Philosophy of Astrophysics by Mills Boyd, Nora; De Baerdemaeker, Siska; Heng, Kevin; Matarese, Vera;

This is an open access book. This book, the first edited collection of its kind, explores the recent emergence of philosophical research in astrophysics. It assembles a variety of original essays from scholars who are currently shaping this field, and it combines insightful overviews of the current state of play with novel, significant contributions. It therefore provides an ideal source for understanding the current debates in philosophy of astrophysics, and it offers new ideas for future cutting-edge research. The selection of essays offered in this book addresses methodological and metaphysical questions that target a wide range of topics, including dark matter, black holes, astrophysical observations and modelling.

1. Introduction (Vera Matarese, Siska De Baerdemaeker, and Nora Mills Boyd).- Part I: Theory, Observation, and the Relation Between Them. 2. Laboratory Astrophysics: Lessons for Epistemology of Astrophysics (Nora Mills Boyd).- 3. A Crack in the Track of the Hubble Constant (Marie Gueguen).- 4. Theory Testing in Gravitational-Wave Astrophysics (Jamee Elder).- 5. Hybrid Enrichment of Theory and Observation in Next-Generation Stellar Population Synthesis (Lydia Patton).- 6. Doing More with Less: Dark Matter & Modified Gravity (Niels C. M. Martens and Martin King).- Part II: Models and Simulations. 7. Stellar Structure Models Revisited: Evidence and Data in Asteroseismology (Mauricio Suárez).- 8. Idealizations in Astrophysical Computer Simulations (Melissa Jacquart and Regy-Null R. Arcadia).- 9. Simulation Verification in Practice (Kevin Kadowaki).- 10. (What) Do We Learn from Code Comparisons? A Case Study of Self-Interacting Dark Matter Implementations (Helen Meskhidze).- 11. Simulation and Experiment Revisited: Temporal Data in Astronomy and Astrophysics (Shannon Sylvie Abelson).- 12. What’s In a Survey? Simulation-Induced Selection Effects in Astronomy (Sarah C. Gallagher and Christopher Smeenk).- Part III: Black Holes. 13. On the Epistemology of Observational Black Hole Astrophysics (Juliusz Doboszewski and Dennis Lehmkuhl).- 14. Black Holes and Analogy (Alex Mathie).- 15. Extragalactic Reality Revisited: Astrophysics and Entity Realism (Simon Allzén).- Part IV: Concluding Thoughts. 16. Reflections by a Theoretical Astrophysicist (Kevin Heng).- 17. Annotated Bibliography (Cameron C. Yetman).