There’s a number of accessible and enjoyable books in the Very Short Introduction series and Samir Okasha’s Philosophy Of Science: A Very Short Introduction is no exception.

As you might expect, it begins with a history of modern science, including Aristotle, Copernicus and ancient scientists and mathematicians, then takes a look at Karl Popper and falsifiability, and Thomas Khun’s “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”, along with some modern developments in the field. While there’s photos and diagrams, it’s a little light on induction and deduction, although it does reference Hume and his contributions. If you’re wondering about the basic methods of scientific reasoning and the ideas of realism and anti-realism, and logical positivism, it has great summaries of them all.

While this book is ‘short introduction’, it couldn’t cover much on paradigm shifts and how scientists, like other human beings, can have biases and a priori assumptions, it does cover as much ground as it can; I learned for the first time the debates by Newton and Leibniz on space. I know that there’s many other books that discuss the rise of intelligent design in detail, and what it means for the teaching and understanding of science, and I’d probably recommend those in comparison, but for an introduction to philosophy of science, it sets the reader on the right track.