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579Natural KindnessBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 66 (2): 375-411. 2015.Philosophers have long been interested in a series of interrelated questions about natural kinds. What are they? What role do they play in science and metaphysics? How do they contribute to our epistemic projects? What categories count as natural kinds? And so on. Owing, perhaps, to different starting points and emphases, we now have at hand a variety of conceptions of natural kinds—some apparently better suited than others to accommodate a particular sort of inquiry. Even if coherent, this situ…Read more
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36How to Justify Teaching False ScienceScience Education 92 (3): 526-542. 2008.We often knowingly teach false science. Such a practice conflicts with a prima facie pedagogical value placed on teaching only what’s true. I argue that only a partial dissolution of the conflict is possible: the proper aim of instruction in science is not to provide an armory of facts about what things the world contains, how they interact, and so on, but rather to contribute to an understanding of how science as a human endeavor works and what sorts of facts about the world science aims to pro…Read more
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259Review: Muhammad Ali Khalidi's Natural Categories and Human Kinds: Classification in the Natural and Social Sciences (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 66 (4): 1017-1023. 2015.
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111A Reflection on our FreedomPhilosophia 38 (2): 327-330. 2010.Many Compatibilists seem to suppose that discover that we lived in a deterministic world would not unseat our confidence that many of our actions are nevertheless free. Here's a short story about such confidence becoming unseated.
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
General Philosophy of Science |
Social Epistemology |
Philosophy of Biology |
Metaphysics |