So much the worse for logic : notes on William Whewell's methodology

Without any pretense at being an exhaustive overview of William Whewell's thoughts, this essay focuses on a few fundamental points, in which this semi-forgotten author anticipates with great clarity theses that today are shared by many scholars of scientific methodology. The themes highlighted intend to underline Whewell's how contribution was ahead of its time, and include: the problem of the difficult delimitation between fact and theory; the critique of the traditional definition of inductive inference and the «invention» of retroduction or abduction (as Pierce will call them); a remarkably interesting model of bold conjectures, on which Popper will keenly focus [Publisher's Text].