-
10Philosophy of Mathematics: An Introduction to the World of Proofs and Pictures James Robert Brown (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 52 (2): 413-416. 2001.
-
Philosophy of Mathematics, an Introduction to the World of Proofs and PicturesBulletin of Symbolic Logic 9 (4): 504-506. 2003.
-
21Comments and RepliesCroatian Journal of Philosophy 7 (2): 249-268. 2007.I reply to a number of papers (published in Croatian Journal of Philosophy 7 [2007], 29-92 and in this issue) that stem from a conference in Rijeka on thought experinlents. These are papers by Ana Butković, Dave Davies, Boris Grozdanoff, Dunja Jutronić, Nenad Miščević, Ksenija Puškarić, and Irina Starikova. Their criticisms of my views are diverse, but one theme, perhaps inevitably, dominates the criticisms: the unworkability of my Platonism. I try to defend this and to adequately answer other c…Read more
-
18
-
62Katerina Ierodiakonou and Sophie Roux, eds. Thought Experiments in Methodological and Historical Contexts. Leiden: Brill, 2011. Pp. vii+233. €99.00 (review)Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 3 (1): 154-157. 2013.
-
45Latour’s Prosaic ScienceCanadian Journal of Philosophy 21 (2): 245-261. 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
-
122Grounding Concepts: an Empirical Basis for Arithmetical Knowledge – C.S. JenkinsPhilosophical Quarterly 61 (242): 208-211. 2011.
-
16Roy Sorensen, Thought Experiments. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press1992. Pp. xii + 318Canadian Journal of Philosophy 25 (1): 135-142. 1995.
-
16The best philosophy of science during the last generation has been highly historical; and the best history of science, highly philosophical. No one has better exemplified this intimate relationship between history and philosophy than has Robert E. Butts in his work. Through out his numerous writings, science, its philosophy, and its history have been treated as a seamless web. The result has been a body of work that is sensitive in its conception, ambitious in its scope, and illuminat ing in its…Read more
-
40Appearance in this list neither guarantees nor precludes a future review of the bookMind 117 (468): 468. 2008.
-
55Foundations without Foundationalism: A Case for Second-Order LogicStewart Shapiro Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991, xx + 277 pp (review)Dialogue 35 (3): 624-626. 1996.Book review
-
1149Thought Experiments: State of the ArtIn Michael T. Stuart, Yiftach Fehige & James Robert Brown (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments, Routledge. pp. 1-28. 2018.This is the introduction to the Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments
-
34Another fine footnote to Plato: Sam Cowling: Abstract entities. Milton Park, UK and New York: Routledge, x+281pp, £31.99 PBMetascience 27 (3): 477-480. 2018.
-
20A Sense of the Future: Essays in Natural Philosophy. By Jacob Bronowski. Cambridge, Mass: M.I.T. Press, 1977 xi + 286 pages. $12.50 (review)Dialogue 18 (2): 254-257. 1979.
-
Philosophy of Mathematics: An Introduction to the World of Proofs and PicturesErkenntnis 54 (3): 404-407. 2001.
-
13Mathematical NarrativesEuropean Journal of Analytic Philosophy 10 (2): 59-73. 2014.Philosophers and mathematicians have different ideas about the difference between pure and applied mathematics. This should not surprise us, since they have different aims and interests. For mathematicians, pure mathematics is the interesting stuff, even if it has lots of physics involved. This has the consequence that picturesque examples play a role in motivating and justifying mathematical results. Philosophers might find this upsetting, but we find a parallel to mathematician’s attitudes in …Read more
-
56How Do Feynman Diagrams Work?Perspectives on Science 26 (4): 423-442. 2018.Feynman diagrams are now iconic. Like pictures of the Bohr atom, everyone knows they have something important to do with physics. Those who work in quantum field theory, string theory, and other esoteric fields of physics use them extensively. In spite of this, it is far from clear what they are or how they work. Are they mere calculating tools? Are they somehow pictures of physical reality? Are they models in any interesting sense? Or do they play some other kind of role?It is safe to say they …Read more
-
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 |