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68Wissenschaftslogik: The role of logic in the philosophy of scienceSynthese 164 (3): 385-400. 2008.Carl Hempel introduced what he called "Craig's theorem" into the philosophy of science in a famous discussion of the "problem of theoretical terms." Beginning with Hempel's use of 'Craig's theorem," I shall bring out some of the key differences between Hempel's treatment of the "problem of theoretical terms" and Carnap's in order to illuminate the peculiar function of Wissenschaftslogik in Carnap's mature philosophy. Carnap's treatment, in particular, is fundamentally antimetaphysical—he aims to…Read more
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37Understanding space-timeStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 38 (1): 216-225. 2007.
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136The Scientific Image by Bas C. van Fraassen (review)Journal of Philosophy 79 (5): 274-283. 1982.
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46Transcendental Philosophy And Mathematical PhysicsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 34 (1): 29-43. 2003.his paper explores the relationship between Kant’s views on the metaphysical foundations of Newtonian mathematical physics and his more general transcendental philosophy articulated in the Critique of pure reason. I argue that the relationship between the two positions is very close indeed and, in particular, that taking this relationship seriously can shed new light on the structure of the transcendental deduction of the categories as expounded in the second edition of the Critique.Author Keywo…Read more
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26Transcendental Philosophy and Twentieth Century PhyscisPhilosophy Today 49 (Supplement): 23-29. 2005.
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16Paper, Plaster, Strings: Exploratory Material Mathematical Models between the 1860s and 1930sPerspectives on Science 29 (4): 436-467. 2021.Does the materiality of a three-dimensional model have an effect on how this model operates in an exploratory way, how it prompts discovery of new mathematical results? Material mathematical models were produced and used during the second half of the nineteenth century, visualizing mathematical objects, such as curves and surfaces—and these were produced from a variety of materials: paper, cardboard, plaster, strings, wood. However, the question, whether their materiality influenced the status o…Read more
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327Poincaré's conventionalism and the logical positivistsFoundations of Science 1 (2): 299-314. 1995.The logical positivists adopted Poincare's doctrine of the conventionality of geometry and made it a key part of their philosophical interpretation of relativity theory. I argue, however, that the positivists deeply misunderstood Poincare's doctrine. For Poincare's own conception was based on the group-theoretical picture of geometry expressed in the Helmholtz-Lie solution of the space problem, and also on a hierarchical picture of the sciences according to which geometry must be presupposed be …Read more
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26Newtonian methodological abstractionStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72 162-178. 2020.
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217Kant, skepticism, and idealismInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 49 (1). 2006.Skeptical problems arising for Kant's version of transcendental idealism have been raised from Kant's own time to the present day. By focussing on how such problems originally arose in the wake of Kant's work, and on the first formulations of absolute idealism by Schelling, I argue that the skeptical problems in question ultimately depend on fundamental features of Kant's philosophy of natural science. As a result, Naturphilosophie and the organic conception of nature cannot easily be separated …Read more
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60Kant on Space, the Understanding, and the Law of GravitationThe Monist 72 (2): 236-284. 1989.Section 38 of Kant’s Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics is of great interest. For Kant there attempts, uncharacteristically, to illustrate one of the central claims of his exceedingly abstract and general transcendental philosophy by means of a concrete example. The claim in question is stated as the conclusion of §36.
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22Kant, Kuhn, and the Rationality of ScienceVienna Circle Institute Yearbook 9 25-41. 2002.In the Introduction to the Critique of Pure Reason Kant formulates what he calls “the general problem of pure reason,” namely, “How are synthetic a priori judgements possible?” Kant explains that this general problem involves two more specific questions about particular a priori sciences: “How is pure mathematics possible?” and “How is pure natural science possible?”— where the first concerns, above all, the possibility of Euclidean geometry, and the second concerns the possibility of fundamenta…Read more
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34Helmholtz’s Zeichentheorie and Schlick’s Allgemeine ErkenntnislehrePhilosophical Topics 25 (2): 19-50. 1997.
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43History and Philosophy of Science in a New KeyIsis 99 (1): 125-134. 2008.ABSTRACT This essay considers the relationship between history of science and philosophy of science from Thomas Kuhn to the present. This relationship, of course, has often been troubled, but there is now new hope for an ongoing productive interaction—due to an increasing awareness, among other things, of the mutual entanglement between the development of modern science and the development of modern philosophy on the part of both professional (historically minded) philosophers and professional h…Read more
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25Foundations of Space-Time Theories: Relativistic and Philosophy of ScienceJournal of Philosophy 85 (3): 158-164. 1988.
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225Extending the Dynamics of ReasonErkenntnis 75 (3): 431-444. 2011.What I call the dynamics of reason is a post-Kuhnian approach to the history and philosophy of science articulating a relativized and historicized version of the Kantian conception of the rationality and objectivity of the modern physical sciences. I here discuss two extensions of this approach. I argue that, although the relativized standards of rationality in question change over time, the particular way in which they do this still preserves the trans-historical rationality of the entire proce…Read more
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327Einstein, Kant, and the A PrioriIn Mauricio Suárez, Mauro Dorato & Miklós Rédei (eds.), EPSA Philosophical Issues in the Sciences · Launch of the European Philosophy of Science Association, Springer. pp. 65--73. 2009.Kant's original version of transcendental philosophy took both Euclidean geometry and the Newtonian laws of motion to be synthetic a priori constitutive principles—which, from Kant's point of view, function as necessary presuppositions for applying our fundamental concepts of space, time, matter, and motion to our sensible experience of the natural world. Although Kant had very good reasons to view the principles in question as having such a constitutively a priori role, we now know, in the wake…Read more
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128Eckart förster and Kant's opus postumumInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 46 (2). 2003.This Article does not have an abstract
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344Ernst Cassirer and Thomas Kuhn: The neo-Kantian tradition in history and philosophy of sciencePhilosophical Forum 39 (2): 239-252. 2008.No Abstract
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157Ernst Cassirer and contemporary philosophy of scienceAngelaki 10 (1). 2005.(2005). Ernst Cassirer and Contemporary Philosophy of Science. Angelaki: Vol. 10, continental philosophy and the sciences the german traditionissue editor: damian veal, pp. 119-128
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523Carnap on theoretical terms: structuralism without metaphysicsSynthese 180 (2). 2011.Both realists and instrumentalists have found it difficult to understand (much less accept) Carnap's developed view on theoretical terms, which attempts to stake out a neutral position between realism and instrumentalism. I argue that Carnap's mature conception of a scientific theory as the conjunction of its Ramsey sentence and Carnap sentence can indeed achieve this neutral position. To see this, however, we need to see why the Newman problem raised in the context of recent work on structural …Read more
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304Carnap, Cassirer, and Heidegger: The davos disputation and twentieth century philosophyEuropean Journal of Philosophy 10 (3). 2002.
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75Carnap and Weyl on the foundations of geometry and relativity theoryErkenntnis 42 (2): 247-260. 1995.
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