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52Rationality and Relativism Martin Hollis and Steven Lukes, editors Oxford: Blackwell, 1982. Pp. 312. $34.25, cloth; $18.25, paper (review)Dialogue 22 (2): 369-371. 1983.
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133Counter Thought ExperimentsRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 61 155-177. 2007.Let's begin with an old example. In De Rerum Naturua , Lucretius presented a thought experiment to show that space is infinite. We imagine ourselves near the alleged edge of space; we throw a spear; we see it either sail through the ‘edge’ or we see it bounce back. In the former case the ‘edge’ isn't the edge, after all. In the latter case, there must be something beyond the ‘edge’ that repelled the spear. Either way, the ‘edge’ isn't really an edge of space, after all. So space is infinite
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11Book Review:Science and Convention Jerzy Giedymin (review)Philosophy of Science 52 (1): 168-. 1985.
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6Why Thought Experiments Transcend ExperienceIn Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Science, Blackwell. pp. 23-43. 2004.
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80Money, Method and Medical ResearchEpisteme 1 (1): 49-59. 2004.It's sometimes useful to start with a quiz, even if it seems irrelevant to the issues at hand. Suppose you have to organize a tennis tournament with, say, 1025 players. Match winners will go on to the next round while losers bow out until all have been eliminated except, of course, the final champion. Your problem is this: How many matches must you book for this tournament?
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Why Empiricism Won't WorkIn C. Hitchcock (ed.), Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Science, . 2004.A defence of a priori knowledge of nature via thought experiments. The article is part of a pair, the counter-view argued by John Norton.
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23Boundaries, Reasons, and Ideology: Reply to SismondoEpisteme 1 (3): 249-255. 2005.Sergio Sismondo's “Boundary Work and the Science Wars” nicely exemplifies a hotly debated central issue. One side, let me call them the rationalists, tries to explain episodes in the history of science in terms of reason. They claim that scientists, past and present, believe what they do because of the evidence that they have at the time. The other side, following Sismondo, let me call them STSers , claim that social and other non-cognitive factors are the frequent causes of belief. This disagre…Read more
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105Politics, method, and medical researchPhilosophy of Science 75 (5): 756-766. 2008.There is sufficient evidence that intellectual property rights are corrupting medical research. One could respond to this from a moral or from an epistemic point of view. I take the latter route. Often in the sciences factual discoveries lead to new methodological norms. Medical research is an example. Surprisingly, the methodological change required will involve political change. Instead of new regulations aimed at controlling the problem, the outright socialization of research seems called for…Read more
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16Introduction to the special issue on rationalityInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 13 (3): 213. 1999.No abstract
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129Thought experiments since the scientific revolutionInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 1 (1). 1986.No abstract
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31Proof and truth in Lakatos's masterpieceInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 4 (2). 1990.Abstract Proofs and Refutations is Lakatos's masterpiece. This article investigates some of its central themes, in particular: the nature of proofs ('Proofs do not prove, they improve'); the nature of definitions (real, not nominal); and the consequences of all this for ontology (platonism vs Popper's World Three)
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99Funding, objectivity and the socialization of medical researchScience and Engineering Ethics 8 (3): 295--308. 2002.There has been a sharp rise in private funding of medical research, especially in relation to patentable products. Several serious problems with this are described. A solution involving the elimination of patents and public funding administered through extended national health care systems is proposed.
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75Review of Alexander Bird's book Thomas Kuhn (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 53 (1): 143-149. 2002.
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228Proofs and picturesBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 48 (2): 161-180. 1997.Everyone appreciates a clever mathematical picture, but the prevailing attitude is one of scepticism: diagrams, illustrations, and pictures prove nothing; they are psychologically important and heuristically useful, but only a traditional verbal/symbolic proof provides genuine evidence for a purported theorem. Like some other recent writers (Barwise and Etchemendy [1991]; Shin [1994]; and Giaquinto [1994]) I take a different view and argue, from historical considerations and some striking exampl…Read more
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2EditorialInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 15 (2). 2001.This Article does not have an abstract
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162Peeking into Plato’s HeavenPhilosophy of Science 71 (5): 1126-1138. 2004.Examples of classic thought experiments are presented and some morals drawn. The views of my fellow symposiasts, Tamar Gendler, John Norton, and James McAllister, are evaluated. An account of thought experiments along a priori and Platonistic lines is given. I also cite the related example of proving theorems in mathematics with pictures and diagrams. To illustrate the power of these methods, a possible refutation of the continuum hypothesis using a thought experiment is sketched.
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54Science in a Free Society by Paul Feyerabend; New Left Books; London, 1978; Pp. 221Dialogue 20 (1): 169-171. 1981.
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16Philosophy of Science: The Key Thinkers (edited book)Continuum Books. 2012.From the 19th century the philosophy of science has been shaped by a group of influential figures. Who were they? Why do they matter? This introduction brings to life the most influential thinkers in the philosophy of science, uncovering how the field has developed over the last 200 years. Taking up the subject from the time when some philosophers began to think of themselves not just as philosophers but as philosophers of science, a team of leading contemporary philosophers explain, criticize a…Read more
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36Latour’s Prosaic ScienceCanadian Journal of Philosophy 21 (2). 1991.The most embarrassing thing about ‘facts’ is the etymology of the word. The Latin facere means to make or construct. Bruno Latour, like so many other anti-realists who revel in the word’s history, thinks facts are made by us: they are a social construction. The view acquires some plausibility in Laboratory Life: The Social Construction of Scientific Facts which Latour co-authored with Steve Woolgar.1 This work, first published a decade ago, has become a classic in the sociology of science litera…Read more
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33Platonism and laws: A reply to Demetra Sfendoni‐MentzouInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 8 (3). 1994.his paper is a reply to Demetra Sfendoni‐Mentzou; it defends a realist—indeed a platonist—account of laws of nature.
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49Platonism, Metaphor, and MathematicsDialogue 43 (1): 47-. 2004.RésuméDans leur livre récent, George Lakoff et Rafael Núñez se livrent à une critique naturaliste soutenue du platonisme traditionnel concernant les entités mathématiques. Ils affirment que des résultats récents en sciences cognitives démontrent qu'il est faux. En particulier, ils estiment que la découverte que la cognition mathématique s'appuie pour une large part sur les métaphores conceptuelles est incompatible avec le platonisme. Nous montrons ici que tel n'est pas le cas. Nous examinons et …Read more
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34History and the Norms of SciencePSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1980. 1980.Starting from the assumption that the history of science is, in some significant sense, rational and thus that historical episodes may serve as evidence in choosing between competing normative methodologies of science, the question arises: "Just what is this history-methodology evidential relation?" After examining the proposals of Laudan, a more plausible account is proposed.
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82What is applied mathematics?Foundations of Science 2 (1): 21-37. 1997.A number of issues connected with the nature of applied mathematics are discussed. Among the claims are these: mathematics "hooks onto" the world by providing models or representations, not by describing the world; classic platonism is to be preferred to structuralism; and several issues in the philosophy of science are intimately connected to the nature of applied mathematics
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University of Toronto, St. George CampusDepartment of Philosophy
Institute for the History and Philosophy of ScienceRetired faculty
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Areas of Specialization
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |