Philosophy of Science Reading List
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Here’S No Speed of Light, So What the Heck Did Michelson Measure?” “What the Humean Should Say About Quantities: a Reply to Bricker”
Hellems Building, Office 282 [email protected] CU Boulder, Dept of Philosophy (215)-262-3126 Boulder, CO 80309 www.zrperry.com Zee R. Perry curriculum vitae Employment 2018–present Center Visiting Scholar Center for the Study of Origins, University of Colorado, Boulder 2018–present Visiting Instructor Department of Philosophy, University of Colorado, Boulder 2016–2018 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Associate Department of Philosophy, Rutgers University, New Brunswick Education 2009–2016 Ph.D. in Philosophy, New York University. Dissertation: Physical Quantities: Mereology and Dynamics Committee: Tim Maudlin (chair), Cian Dorr, Hartry Field, Shamik Dasgupta (ex- ternal, Princeton) 2007–2009 B.A. in Philosophy, Rutgers University Summa Cum Laude. 2005–2007 Moravian College Areas of Specialization Metaphysics, Philosophy of Physics Areas of Competence Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Art, Logic Fellowships and Awards Summer Early Career Researcher Visiting Fellowship, ANU School of Philosophy and Centre 2019 for the Philosophy of the Sciences 2018–present Visiting Scholarship Award (Project: Origins of Measurement), Center for the Study of Origins, CU Boulder 2015–2016 Mellon Dissertation Fellowship, NYU 2015 Student Senator’s Council Conference Funding Travel Award, NYU 2015 Outstanding Teaching Award, NYU 2014 Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Student Travel Grant, NYU 2009–2014 MacCracken Fellowship, NYU 1 Publications 2017 “How to be a Substantivalist Without Getting Shifty About It”. Philosophical Issues: Metaphysics. 27, (1). (2017). http://philpapers.org/rec/PERHTB 2017 “What the Humean Should Say about Entanglement” (with Harjit Bhogal). Noûs. 51, (1). (2017). http://philpapers.org/rec/BHOWTH 2015 “Properly Extensive Quantities”. Philosophy of Science. University of Chicago Press. -
Curriculum Vitae
BAS C. VAN FRAASSEN Curriculum Vitae Last updated 3/6/2019 I. Personal and Academic History .................................................................................................................... 1 List of Degrees Earned ........................................................................................................................................................ 1 Title of Ph.D. Thesis ........................................................................................................................................................... 1 Positions held ..................................................................................................................................................................... 1 Invited lectures and lecture series ........................................................................................................................................ 1 List of Honors, Prizes ......................................................................................................................................................... 4 Research Grants .................................................................................................................................................................. 4 Non-Academic Publications ................................................................................................................................................ 5 II. Professional Activities ................................................................................................................................. -
@)"'*"'O' See Fiont Matter 0039-3681/00$
Stud.Hist. Phil. Sci.,Vol. 31, No. I, pp. l5l-112,20o0 @ 20fi) Elsevier ScienceLtd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain @)"'*"'o' see fiont matter www.elswier.com/locate/shpsa 0039-3681/00$ - Rudolf Carnap's oTheoreticalConcepts in Sciencet Stathis Psillos* 1. Editor's Introduction Rudolf Camapdelivered the hitherto unpublishedlecture 'TheoreticalConcepts in Science' at the meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division, at SantaBarbarg Califomia, on 29 December1959. It was part of a symposiumon 'Camap'sviews on TheoreticalConcepts in Science'.In the bibli- ographythat appearsin the end of the volume, 'The Philosophyof Rudolf Camap', edited by Faul Arthur Schilpp, a revised version of this addressappears to be amongCamap's forthcoming papers.But although Camap startedto revise it, he never finisfusdthe revision,r and never publishedthe unrevisedtranscript. Perhaps this is becausevariants of the approachto theoreticalconcepts presented for the first time in the SantaBarbara lecture have appearedin other papersof his (cf. the editorial footnotesin Carnap'slecture). Still, I thinlq the SantaBarbara address is a little philosophical gem that needsto see the light of day. The documentthat follows is the unrevisedtanscript of Carnap's lecture.2lts style, then, is tbat of an oral presentation.I decidedto leave it as it is, making only very minor stylistic chonges-which, exceptthose related to punctuation,are indicatedby curly brack- ets.3I think that reading this lecture is a rewarding experience,punctuated as the lechne is with odd remarksand autobiographicalpoints. One can alnost envisage I Department of Philosophy and History of Science, University of Athens, Athens, Greece Received 28 Apil 1998; in revkedform I September 1998. -
Paradox Regained? a Brief Comment on Maudlin on Black Hole Information Loss
(Information) Paradox Regained? A Brief Comment on Maudlin on Black Hole Information Loss JB Manchak, James Owen Weatherall Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science University of California, Irvine Abstract We discuss some recent work by Tim Maudlin concerning Black Hole Information Loss. We argue, contra Maudlin, that there is a paradox, in the straightforward sense that there are propositions that appear true, but which are incompatible with one another. We discuss the significance of the paradox and Maudlin's response to it. Keywords: Black holes; Information loss paradox; Kodama-Wald theorem; evaporation event; Global hyperbolicity The black hole information loss paradox (Hawking, 1976) is a widely discussed (putative) puzzle that arises when one attempts to make sense of physicists' expectation that global quantum dynamics will be unitary in light of the postulated phenomenon of black hole evaporation (Hawking, 1974, 1975; Unruh, 1976), which is apparently a consequence of Hawking radiation.1 In a provocative recent manuscript, Tim Maudlin (2017) forcefully argues that \There is no `information loss' paradox." The \solution" to the \paradox", he claims, requires no new physics and indeed, was already available, though not appreciated, in 1975. The appearance of paradox arises only because of persistent errors, both mathematical and conceptual in character, by prominent members of the physics community. There is much to admire in Maudlin's treatment of the subject. We agree, for instance, with his discussion of the (non-)role of \information" in the putative paradox. What is really at issue is predictability, or even better, retrodictability, and not information (at least in the sense of information theory): as we will describe in more detail below, the puzzle concerns whether any specification of data on a particular surface is sufficient to retrodict the physical process by which that data came about. -
2 Tracing the Development of Structural Realism
1 2 TRACING THE DEVELOPMENT OF STRUCTURAL REALISM Ioannis Votsis 1. Introduction This chapter traces the development of structural realism within the scientific realism debate and the wider current of structuralism that has swept the philosophy of the natural sciences in the twentieth century. 1 The primary aim is to make perspicuous the many manifestations of structural realism and their underlying claims. Among other things, I will compare structural realism’s various manifestations in order to throw more light onto the relations between them. At the end of the chapter, I will identify the main objections raised against the epistemic form of structural realism. This last task will pave the way for the evaluation of the structural realist answer to the main epistemological question, an evaluation that will be central to the rest of this dissertation. Generally construed, structuralism is a point of view that emphasises the importance of relations. It takes the structure, i.e. the nexus of relations, of a given domain of interest to be the foremost goal of research and holds that an understanding of the subject matter has to be, and most successfully is, achieved in structural terms. The following quote from Redhead (2001a) nicely conveys this intuition: “Informally a structure is a system of related elements, and structuralism is a point of view which focuses attention on the relations between the elements as distinct from the elements themselves”(74). This vision has shaped research programmes in fields as diverse as mathematics, linguistics, literary criticism, aesthetics, anthropology, psychology, and philosophy of science. It is the last-mentioned that I am concerned with in this chapter. -
Conversations with Alan Musgrave
Rationality and Reality STUDIES IN HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE VOLUME 20 General Editor: S. GAUKROGER, University of Sydney Editorial Advisory Board: RACHEL ANKENY, University of Sydney STEVEN FRENCH, University of Leeds DAVID PAPINEAU, King’ s College London NICHOLAS RASMUSSEN, University of New South Wales JOHN SCHUSTER, University of New South Wales RICHARD YEO, Griffith University RATIONALITY AND REALITY Conversations with Alan Musgrave Edited by COLIN CHEYNE University of Otago, DDunedin, New Zealand and JOHN WORRALL London School of Economics, London, UK A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN-10 1-4020-4206-X (HB) ISBN-13 978-1-4020-4206-X (HB) ISBN-10 1-4020-4207-8 (e-book) ISBN-13 978-1-4020-4207-8 (e-book) Published by Springer, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands. www.springer.com Cover: Photograph of Alan Musgrave used with kind permission of Gudrun Perin, Guelph, Canada Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved © 2006 Springer No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed in the Netherlands. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements vii Notes on Contributors ix COLIN CHEYNE / Introduction 1 GREGORY CURRIE / Where Does the Burden of Theory Lie? 7 COLIN CHEYNE / Testimony, Induction and Reasonable Belief 19 JOHN WORRALL / Theory-Confirmation and History 31 DEBORAH G. -
Models, Perspectives, and Scientific Realism
MODELS, PERSPECTIVES, AND SCIENTIFIC REALISM: ON RONALD GIERE'S PERSPECTIVAL REALISM A thesis submitted to Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Brian R. Huth May, 2014 Thesis written by Brian R. Huth B.A., Kent State University 2012 M.A., Kent State University 2014 Approved by Frank X. Ryan, Advisor Linda Williams, Chair, Department of Philosophy James L. Blank, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................. iv INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER I. FROM THE RECEIVED VIEW TO THE MODEL-THEORETIC VIEW........................................................................................................... 7 Section 1.1.................................................................................................... 9 Section 1.2.................................................................................................... 16 II. RONALD GIERE'S CONSTRUCTIVISM AND PERSPECTIVAL REALISM.................................................................................................... 25 Section 2.1.................................................................................................... 25 Section 2.2.................................................................................................... 31 Section 2.3................................................................................................... -
Contemporary Issues Concerning Scientific Realism
The Future of the Scientific Realism Debate: Contemporary Issues Concerning Scientific Realism Author(s): Curtis Forbes Source: Spontaneous Generations: A Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2018) 1-11. Published by: The University of Toronto DOI: 10.4245/sponge.v9i1. EDITORIALOFFICES Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology Room 316 Victoria College, 91 Charles Street West Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1K7 [email protected] Published online at jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/SpontaneousGenerations ISSN 1913 0465 Founded in 2006, Spontaneous Generations is an online academic journal published by graduate students at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto. There is no subscription or membership fee. Spontaneous Generations provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. The Future of the Scientific Realism Debate: Contemporary Issues Concerning Scientific Realism Curtis Forbes* I. Introduction “Philosophy,” Plato’s Socrates said, “begins in wonder” (Theaetetus, 155d). Two and a half millennia later, Alfred North Whitehead saw fit to add: “And, at the end, when philosophical thought has done its best, the wonder remains” (1938, 168). Nevertheless, we tend to no longer wonder about many questions that would have stumped (if not vexed) the ancients: “Why does water expand when it freezes?” “How can one substance change into another?” “What allows the sun to continue to shine so brightly, day after day, while all other sources of light and warmth exhaust their fuel sources at a rate in proportion to their brilliance?” Whitehead’s addendum to Plato was not wrong, however, in the sense that we derive our answers to such questions from the theories, models, and methods of modern science, not the systems, speculations, and arguments of modern philosophy. -
The Pragmatics of Explanation: Remarks on Van Fraassen's Theory of Why-Questions1
The Pragmatics of explanation: Remarks on van Fraassen’s theory of why-questions1 A Pragmática da explicação: Comentários sobre a teoria das questões-por-quê de van Fraassen Renato Cesar Cani Universidade Federal do Paraná – UFPR/CAPES – Brasil [email protected] Abstract: In this article, my aim is to analyze Bas van Fraassen’s pragmatic solution to two of the traditional problems concerning scientific explanation, namely, rejection and asymmetry. According to his view, an explanation is an answer to some request for information. The emergence of a question, as well as the evaluation of the explanations adduced, depends on considerations about contextual factors. In addition, I will evaluate the pertinence of objections raised by Philip Kitcher and Wesley Salmon against van Fraassen’s account. I will argue that their charge is not sound, for it actually misunderstands the role played by context in van Fraassen’s account. Although Salmon’s and Kitcher’s realist commitments motivate the point made by them, I will hold that a pragmatic account of explanation does not commit one to an anti-realist approach to science. Keywords: Pragmatics of Explanation. Bas van Fraassen. Why-questions. Asymmetry. Realism. Resumo: Neste artigo, meu objetivo é analisar a solução pragmática oferecida por Bas van Fraassen a dois dos tradicionais problemas da explicação científica, quais sejam, o da rejeição e o da assimetria. Em sua visão, uma explicação é uma resposta a alguma demanda por informação. O surgimento de uma questão, bem como a avaliação das possíveis explicações, depende de fatores contextuais. Além disso, avaliarei a pertinência das objeções de Philip Kitcher e Wesley Salmon contra a concepção de van Fraassen. -
1 Hilary Putnam, Reason, Truth and History, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979). Henceforth 'RTH'. the Position Th
[The Journal of Philosophical Research XVII (1992): 313-345] Brains in a Vat, Subjectivity, and the Causal Theory of Reference Kirk Ludwig Department of Philosophy University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32611-8545 1. Introduction In the first chapter of Reason, Truth and History,1 Putnam argued that it is not epistemically possible that we are brains in a vat (of a certain sort). If his argument is correct, and can be extended in certain ways, then it seems that we can lay to rest the traditional skeptical worry that most or all of our beliefs about the external world are false. Putnam’s argument has two parts. The first is an argument for a theory of reference2 according to which we cannot refer to an object or a type of object unless we have had a certain sort of causal interaction with it. The second part argues from this theory to the conclusion that we can know that we are not brains in a vat. In this paper I will argue that Putnam’s argument to show that we cannot be brains in a vat is unsuccessful. However, the flaw is not in the argument from the theory of reference to the conclusion 1 Hilary Putnam, Reason, Truth and History, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979). Henceforth ‘RTH’. The position that Putnam advances in this first chapter is one that in later chapters of RTH he abandons in favor of the position that he calls ‘internal realism’. He represents the arguments he gives in chapter 1 as a problem posed for the ‘external realist’, who assumes the possibility of a God’s eye point of view. -
Dissertation Abstract
SCIENTIFIC ANOMALY AND BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF LOW-DOSE CHEMICALS: ELUCIDATING NORMATIVE ETHICS AND SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Kevin Christopher Elliott, B.S., M.A. _________________________________ Kristin S. Shrader-Frechette, Director Graduate Program in History and Philosophy of Science Notre Dame, Indiana April 2004 © Copyright by Kevin C. Elliott 2004 All rights reserved SCIENTIFIC ANOMALY AND BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF LOW-DOSE CHEMICALS: ELUCIDATING NORMATIVE ETHICS AND SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY Abstract by Kevin Christopher Elliott The notion of “anomaly” has persisted for over 2,000 years, but its precise meaning and significance remains unclear. This dissertation analyzes the importance of scientific anomaly both for the philosophy of science and for ethical decision-making that draws on scientific information. In the philosophy of science, it develops a novel account of anomaly. It first provides a conceptual framework for describing anomalies and critically evaluates previous descriptions by Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos, Larry Laudan, and Lindley Darden. Using the anomalous contemporary biological phenomenon known as “chemical hormesis” (i.e., beneficial effects from low doses of toxins) as a case study, the dissertation argues for a novel account that emphasizes three features of anomaly. Namely, researchers “characterize” anomalies in multiple ways, scientists use multiple strategies to “confirm” them, and anomalies interact with novel hypotheses in an ongoing, dialectical fashion. The dissertation argues that this account is significant because it facilitates increased understanding of scientific discovery and of the role that value judgments play in science. -
Theory Choice, Theory Change, and Inductive Truth-Conduciveness
Theory Choice, Theory Change, and Inductive Truth-Conduciveness Konstantin Genin Kevin T. Kelly Carnegie Mellon University [email protected] [email protected] Konstantin Genin (CMU) May 21, 2015 1 This talk is about ... (1) the synchronic norms of theory choice, (2) the diachronic norms of theory change, and the justification of (1-2) by reliability, or truth-conduciveness. Konstantin Genin (CMU) May 21, 2015 2 This talk is about ... (1) the synchronic norms of theory choice, (2) the diachronic norms of theory change, and (3) the justification of (1-2) by reliability, or truth-conduciveness. Konstantin Genin (CMU) May 21, 2015 3 This talk is about ... (1) the synchronic norms of theory choice, (2) the diachronic norms of theory change, and (3) the justification of (1-2) by reliability, or truth-conduciveness. Konstantin Genin (CMU) May 21, 2015 4 The Norms of Theory Choice Synchronic norms of theory choice restrict the theories one can choose in light of given, empirical information. Konstantin Genin (CMU) May 21, 2015 5 The Norms of Theory Choice: Simplicity Figure: William of Ockham, 1287-1347 All things being equal, prefer simpler theories. Konstantin Genin (CMU) May 21, 2015 6 The Norms of Theory Choice: Falsifiability Figure: Sir Karl Popper, 1902-1994 All things being equal, prefer more falsifiable theories. Konstantin Genin (CMU) May 21, 2015 7 The Norms of Theory Choice: Reliable? Is the simpler / more falsifiable theory more plausible? Yes! Can prior probabilities encode that preference? Yes! Konstantin Genin (CMU) May 21, 2015