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1Counterfactual Causality, Empirical Research and the Role of Theory in the Social Sciences (review essay) (review)Historical Methods 41 (4): 197-201. 2008.
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146Causality and Explanation in the SciencesTheoria 27 (2): 133-136. 2012.Editors’ introduction to the special issue on the Causality and Explanation in the Sciences conference, held at the University of Ghent in September 2011.
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57Plausibility versus richness in mechanistic modelsPhilosophical Psychology 26 (1): 139-152. 2013.In this paper we argue that in recent literature on mechanistic explanations, authors tend to conflate two distinct features that mechanistic models can have or fail to have: plausibility and richness. By plausibility, we mean the probability that a model is correct in the assertions it makes regarding the parts and operations of the mechanism, i.e., that the model is correct as a description of the actual mechanism. By richness, we mean the amount of detail the model gives about the actual mech…Read more
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43The practical value of spurious correlations: selective versus manipulative policyAnalysis 68 (4): 298-303. 2008.In the past 25 years, many philosophers have endorsed the view that the practical value of causal knowledge lies in the fact that manipulation of causes is a good way to bring about a desired change in the effect. This view is intuitively very plausible. For instance, we can predict a storm on the basis of a barometer reading, but we cannot avoid the storm by manipulating the state of the barometer (barometer status and storm are effects of a common cause, viz. atmospheric conditions). In §1 we …Read more
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20The role of orientation experiments in discovering mechanismsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 54 46-55. 2015.
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13Adaptive logics for non-explanatory and explanatory diagnostic reasoningIn L. Magnani, N. J. Nersessian & C. Pizzi (eds.), Logical and Computational Aspects of Model-Based Reasoning, Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 117--142. 2002.
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99Mechanistic Explanation and Explanatory Proofs in MathematicsPhilosophia Mathematica 22 (2): 231-248. 2014.Although there is a consensus among philosophers of mathematics and mathematicians that mathematical explanations exist, only a few authors have proposed accounts of explanation in mathematics. These accounts fit into the unificationist or top-down approach to explanation. We argue that these models can be complemented by a bottom-up approach to explanation in mathematics. We introduce the mechanistic model of explanation in science and discuss the possibility of using this model in mathematics,…Read more
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18WetenschapsfilosofieVan Gorcum. 2007.Inleidend overzicht van thema's uit de wetenschapsfilosofie.
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48Dispositional Explanations of BehaviorBehavior and Philosophy 30. 2002.If dispositions are conceived as properties of systems that refer to possible causal relations, dispositions can be used in singular causal explanations. By means of these dispositional explanations, we can explain behavior B of a system x by (i) referring to a situation of type S that triggered B, given that x has a disposition D to do B in S, or (ii) by referring to a disposition D of x to do B in S, given that x is in a situation of type S. Dispositional explanations are adequate and indispen…Read more
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52Inferential explanations in biologyStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 44 (3): 356-364. 2013.Among philosophers of science, there is now a widespread agreement that the DN model of explanation is poorly equipped to account for explanations in biology. Rather than identifying laws, so the consensus goes, researchers explain biological capacities by constructing a model of the underlying mechanism.We think that the dichotomy between DN explanations and mechanistic explanations is misleading. In this article, we argue that there are cases in which biological capacities are explained withou…Read more
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41Confusion and bad arguments in the conceptual analysis of causationLogique Et Analyse 201 81-99. 2008.
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61The Causes and Cures of Scurvy. How modern was James Lind's methodology?Logic and Logical Philosophy 14 (1): 55-67. 2005.The Scottish physician James Lind is the most celebrated name in the history of research into the causes and cures of scurvy. This is due to the famous experiment he conducted in 1747 on H.M.S. Salisbury in order to compare the efficiency of six popular treatments for scurvy. This experiment is generally regarded as the first controlled trial in clinical science (see e.g. Carpenter 1986, p. 52)
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6Call for Papers First World Congress on Paraconsistency, Gent, Belgium 1997Journal of Applied Non-Classical Logics 6 (2). 1996.
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23De-Ontologizing the Debate on Social Explanations: A Pragmatic Approach Based on Epistemic InterestsHuman Studies 31 (4): 423-442. 2008.In a recent paper on realism and pragmatism published in this journal, Osmo Kivinen and Tero Piiroinen have been pleading for more methodological work in the philosophy of the social sciences—refining the conceptual tools of social scientists—and less philosophically ontological theories. Following this de-ontologizing approach, we scrutinize the debates on social explanation and contribute to the development of a pragmatic social science methodology. Analyzing four classic debates concerning ex…Read more