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26David J. Stump, Conceptual Change and the Philosophy of Science: Alternative Interpretations of the A Priori , xviii + 176 pp., £85 (review)Ratio 30 (1): 100-106. 2016.
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55Feyerabend's retreat from realismPhilosophy of Science 64 (4): 431. 1997.In attempting to assess the legacy of Paul Feyerabend's philosophical work, matters are complicated by the fact that there was a change in his basic orientation towards the philosophy of science around the end of the 1960s. Here I shall indicate one aspect of Feyerabend's divided legacy. My main aims are to sketch the principal themes in his (fairly extensive but little-known) 1990s output, to situate that later output insofar as it bears on the realism/antirealism debate, and (rather precipitou…Read more
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51Luciano Floridi philosophy and computing: An introductionBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 52 (1): 197-200. 2001.
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11Nancy Cartwright, Jordi Cat, Lola Fleck, and Thomas Uebel: Otto Neurath: Philosophy Between Science and Politics (review)Philosophy in Review 16 (5): 322-324. 1996.
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2Review of Donald Gillies: Artificial Intelligence and Scientific Method_; Robert Cummins and John L. Pollock: _Philosophy and AI: Essays at the Interface (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 48 (4): 610-612. 1997.
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54Review. Artificial intelligence and scientific method. Donald Gillies. Philosophy and AI: essays at the interface. Robert Cummins, John Pollock (eds) (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 48 (4): 610-612. 1997.
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105Science as supermarket: `Post-modern' themes in Paul Feyerabend's later philosophy of scienceStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 29 (3): 425-447. 1998.
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50The rise of Western rationalism: Paul Feyerabend’s storyStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 57 79-86. 2016.I summarise certain aspects of Paul Feyerabend’s account of the development of Western rationalism, show the ways in which that account is supposed to run up against an alternative, that of Karl Popper, and then try to give a preliminary comparison of the two. My interest is primarily in whether what Feyerabend called his ‘story’ constitutes a possible history of our epistemic concepts and their trajectory. I express some grave reservations about that story, and about Feyerabend’s framework, fin…Read more
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3The Engine of Reason, The Seat of the Soul: A Philosophical Journey into the BrainPhilosophical Books 37 (3): 198-200. 1996.
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10Hertz, Wittgenstein and Philosophical Method1Philosophical Investigations 31 (1): 48-67. 2007.There have recently appeared claims that the influence Heinrich Hertz exerted over Wittgenstein's later work was far more abiding than previously recognised. I critically evaluate such claims by Gordon Baker and Allan Janik. I first show that Hertz was indeed concerned with the same feature, clarity, which often exercised Wittgenstein. But I then argue that Wittgenstein should not be seen as having adopted the conception of philosophical method, which Hertz deployed in The Principles of Mechanic…Read more
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Language and Thought: Interdisciplinary Themes. Edited by Peter Carruthers and Jill BoucherThe European Legacy 6 (4): 556-557. 2001.
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64Explication, Description and EnlightenmentHistory of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 22 (1): 106-120. 2019.In the first chapter of his book Logical Foundations of Probability, Rudolf Carnap introduced and endorsed a philosophical methodology which he called the method of ‘explication’. P.F. Strawson took issue with this methodology, but it is currently undergoing a revival. In a series of articles, Patrick Maher has recently argued that explication is an appropriate method for ‘formal epistemology’, has defended it against Strawson’s objection, and has himself put it to work in the philosophy of scie…Read more
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629Views Into the Chinese Room: New Essays on Searle and Artificial Intelligence (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2002.The most famous challenge to computational cognitive science and artificial intelligence is the philosopher John Searle's "Chinese Room" argument.
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17Interpreting Mach: Critical Essays (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2021.This volume presents new essays on the work and thought of physicist, psychologist, and philosopher Ernst Mach. Moving away from previous estimations of Mach as a pre-logical positivist, the essays reflect his rehabilitation as a thinker of direct relevance to debates in the contemporary philosophies of natural science, psychology, metaphysics, and mind. Topics covered include Mach's work on acoustical psychophysics and physics; his ideas on analogy and the principle of conservation of energy; t…Read more
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64This chapter poses a challenge to the extended mind thesis that Andy Clark and David Chalmers propose for beliefs, upon which their thesis is largely based. Clark and Chalmers present two related theses in their exposition of the extended mind. First they present “active externalism,” which states that a cognitive system is achieved when humans are appropriately linked with external entities; second, they present “the extended mind thesis,” which states that some, if not all, of a subject’s ment…Read more
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5Thomas Kuhn, a Philosophical History for Our Times. By Steve FullerThe European Legacy 8 (6): 833-833. 2003.
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112Kuhn, instrumentalism, and the progress of scienceSocial Epistemology 17 (2-3): 259-265. 2003.Steve Fuller seeks to blame Kuhn for the present state of the philosophy of science. It has become ‘Kuhniferous’, he argues, both in structure and in content. I begin by taking issue with this judgement, suggesting that Kuhn wasn’t as influential as his realist and naturalist opponents. I then proceed to argue that Fuller fails to clinch one of his central charges, that Kuhn disconnected the philosophical defence of scientific progress from any substantive ends of science. Kuhn has a story to te…Read more
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119The place of Heinrich Hertz’s The principles of mechanics in the history of the philosophy of science is disputed. Here I critically assess positivist interpretations, concluding that they are inadequate.There is a group of commentators who seek to align Hertz with positivism, or with specific positivists such as Ernst Mach, who were enormously influential at the time. Max Jammer is prominent among this group, the most recent member of which is Joseph Kockelmans. I begin by discussing what Hertz…Read more
Areas of Interest
Epistemology |
Metaphilosophy |
Philosophy of Social Science |
Philosophy of Physical Science |