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80Observations, theories and the evolution of the human spiritPhilosophy of Science 59 (4): 590-611. 1992.Standard philosophical discussions of theory-ladeness assume that observational evidence consists of perceptual outputs (or reports of such outputs) that are sentential or propositional in structure. Theory-ladeness is conceptualized as having to do with logical or semantical relationships between such outputs or reports and background theories held by observers. Using the recent debate between Fodor and Churchland as a point of departure, we propose an alternative picture in which much of what …Read more
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50Experiment and observationIn Peter K. Machamer & Michael Silberstein (eds.), The Blackwell guide to the philosophy of science, Blackwell. pp. 128--148. 2002.This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Neglecting Experiment; Distorting Observation The Socio‐Theoretical Turn Some Issues for Empirical Epistemologists.
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117Analysing causality: The opposite of counterfactual is factualInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 18 (1). 2002.Using Jim Woodward's Counterfactual Dependency account as an example, I argue that causal claims about indeterministic systems cannot be satisfactorily analysed as including counterfactual conditionals among their truth conditions because the counterfactuals such accounts must appeal to need not have truth values. Where this happens, counterfactual analyses transform true causal claims into expressions which are not true.
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145Epistemological custard pies from functional brain imagingPhilosophy of Science 69 (3). 2002.This paper discusses features of an epistemically valuable form of evidence that raise troubles for received and new epistemological treatments of experimental evidence
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220‘Saving the phenomena’ and saving the phenomenaSynthese 182 (1): 7-22. 2011.Empiricists claim that in accepting a scientific theory one should not commit oneself to claims about things that are not observable in the sense of registering on human perceptual systems (according to Van Fraassen’s constructive empiricism) or experimental equipment (according to what I call liberal empiricism ). They also claim scientific theories should be accepted or rejected on the basis of how well they save the phenomena in the sense delivering unified descriptions of natural regularitie…Read more
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9One of the earliest and most influential treatises on the subject of this volume is Aristotle's Categories. Aristotle's title is a form of the Greek verb for speaking against or submitting an accusation in a legal proceeding. By the time of Aristotle, it also meant: to signify or to predicate. Surprisingly, the "predicates" Aristotle talks about include not only bits of language, but also such nonlinguistic items as the color white in a body and the knowledge of grammar in a man's soul. (Categor…Read more
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303The Possibility of Language: Internal Tensions in Wittgenstein's Tractatus (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 45 (1): 167-169. 2007.James Bogen - The Possibility of Language: Internal Tensions in Wittgenstein's Tractatus - Journal of the History of Philosophy 45:1 Journal of the History of Philosophy 45.1 167-169 Muse Search Journals This Journal Contents Reviewed by James Bogen University of Pittsburgh María Cerezo. The Possibility of Language: Internal Tensions in Wittgenstein's Tractatus. CSLI Lecture Notes, 147. Stanford: CSLI, 2005. Pp. xiv + 321. Paper, $30.00. The Possibility of Language is a difficult, painstakingly …Read more
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157Evading the IRSIn Martin R. Jones & Nancy Cartwright (eds.), Idealization XII: Correcting the Model. Idealization and Abstraction in the Sciences, Rodopi. 2005.'IRS' is our term for the logical empiricist idea that the best way to understand the epistemic bearing of observational evidence on scientific theories is to model it in terms of Inferential Relations among Sentences representing the evidence, and sentences representing hypotheses the evidence is used to evaluate. Developing ideas from our earlier work, including 'Saving the Phenomena'(Phil Review 97, 1988, p.303-52 )we argue that the bearing of observational evidence on theory depends upon cau…Read more
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56`Two as good as a hundred': Poorly replicated evidence in some nineteenth-century neuroscientific researchStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 32 (3): 491-533. 2000.According to a received doctrine, espoused, by Karl Popper and Harry Collins, and taken for granted by many others, poorly replicated evidence should be epistemically defective and incapable of persuading scientists to accept the views it is used to argue for. But John Hughlings Jackson used poorly replicated clinical and post-mortem evidence to mount rationally compelling and influential arguments for a highly progressive theory of the organization of the brain and its functions. This paper set…Read more
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6Leonard Goddard and Brenda Judge, eds., The Metaphysics of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 4 (4): 148-149. 1984.
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38Functional imaging evidence: Some epistemic hotspotsIn Peter McLaughlin, Peter Machamer & Rick Grush (eds.), Theory and Method in the Neurosciences, Pittsburgh University Press. pp. 173--199. 2001.
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118The hodgkin‐huxley equations and the concrete model: Comments on Craver, Schaffner, and WeberPhilosophy of Science 75 (5): 1034-1046. 2008.I claim that the Hodgkin‐Huxley (HH) current equations owe a great deal of their importance to their role in bringing results from experiments on squid giant action preparations to bear on the study of the action potential in other neurons in other in vitro and in vivo environments. I consider ideas from Weber and Craver about the role of Coulomb’s and other fundamental equations in explaining the action potential and in HH’s development of their equations. Also, I offer an embellishment to Scha…Read more
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