BOOK REVIEW Orienting Scientific Progress Nicholas Maxwell (2017) Understanding Scientific Progress: Aim-Oriented Empiricism. St. Paul, Minnesota, Paragon House. ISBN: 9781557789242, 216 Pages, Price: $24.95 (Paperback) Sergio F. Martínez 1 # Springer Nature B.V. 2019 1 The Basic Thesis The book summarizes Nicholas Maxwell’ s proposal of more than three decades: an approach to the philosophy of science which he calls aim-oriented empiricism. The basic insight is that, given theoretical physics has a clear preference for accepting unified theories (even though there are always innumerable, more successful, disunified rivals), one must acknowledge that it entails a fundamental metaphysical assumption about the universe: in order for the universe to be knowable or compre- hensible, the accepted theories (about the universe) cannot be strongly disunified. Making this assumption explicit leads Maxwell to a hierarchy of assumptions concerning the unity, comprehensibility, and knowability of the universe and ultimately to an answer to the question of how science makes progress. Descending this hierarchy leads us to increasing verisimilitude of these assumptions. The initial assumption is that the universe is such that we can acquire some knowledge of our local circumstances. Maxwell claims that we are justified in accepting this assumption as part of our knowledge, even though we have no grounds for holding it to be true. Descending to the next level, we find the assumption that there is some rationally discoverable thesis about the nature of the universe, which, if accepted, allows us to improve our methods for increasing knowledge. Next, we find the thesis that the universe is somehow comprehensible, due to the existence of an unchangeable entity which is responsible for everything that does change. At the next level down, the assumption becomes more substantial: not only is the universe comprehensible, but it is physically comprehensi- ble. All change and diversity can then be explicable in terms of this unchangeable entity. This thesis amounts to saying that the universe could be described by a unified Science & Education https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-019-00072-y * Sergio F. Martínez sfmar@filosoficas.unam.mx 1 Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, Mexico