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2Foundations, Essays in Philosophy, Logic, Mathematics and EconomicsRevue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 169 (1): 118-118. 1979.
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12Science, Belief, and Behaviour: Essays in Honour of R. B. BraithwaitePhilosophical Review 91 (4): 609. 1982.
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2Some Problems about Solving ProblemsPSA Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1978 (2): 522-529. 1978.The two other commentators, being, like Professor Laudan, scholars, have commented on the whole of his book. As a mere philosopher, I may perhaps be forgiven if I get little further than the first chapter of Progress and Its Problems.We know that the practice of science increases our knowledge and understanding of things and events, and consequently our capacity to predict and control them. That is why the practice of science interests philosophers who are concerned to say how such knowledge and…Read more
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6Nature's joints: a realistic defence of natural propertiesIn David S. Oderberg (ed.), Classifying Reality, Wiley-blackwell. 2013.This paper attacks two contrary views. One denies that nature has joints, taking the properties we call natural to be merely artefacts of our theories. The other accepts real natural properties but takes their naturalness to come by degrees. I argue that both are wrong: natural properties are real, and their naturalness no more comes by degrees than does the naturalness of the things that havethem.
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90Matters of MetaphysicsCambridge University Press. 1988.This selection of D. H. Mellor's work demonstrates the wide ranging originality of his work. It gathers together sixteen major papers on related topics. Together they form a complete modern metaphysics. The first five papers are on aspects of the mind: on our 'selves', their supposed subjectivity and how we refer to them, on the nature of conscious belief and on computational and physicalist theories of the mind. The next five papers deal with dispositions, natural kinds, laws of nature and how …Read more
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36Propensities and PossibilitiesMetaphysica 20 (1): 1-3. 2019.This paper is a reply to a recent Metaphysica paper advocating an ‘unrestricted actualism’ which lets the actual world include unrealised possible outcomes of propensities. I argue that the actual world can accommodate propensity theories of chance without including unrealised possibilities.
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45Dispositions and Causes (review)International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 23 (3): 327-330. 2009.This Article does not have an abstract
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100Artists and EngineersPhilosophy 90 (3): 393-402. 2015.I dispute a widespread contrast between the sciences and the humanities that undervalues the latter compared to the former. This contrast assumes that science is more valuable than the humanities because it is more useful, an assumption I reject on the grounds that science is not more useful than the humanities and the value of usefulness, being instrumental, depends on the non-instrumental value of what it's usefulness for. I conclude that science is not made more valuable than the humanities e…Read more
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37God and Probability1: D. H. MELLORReligious Studies 5 (2): 223-234. 1969.My object in this paper is to consider what relevance, if any, current analyses of probability have to problems of religious belief. There is no doubt that words such as ‘probable’ are used in this context; what is doubtful is that this use can be analysed as other major uses of such words can. I shall conclude that this use cannot be so analysed and hence, given the preponderance of the other uses that can, that it is misleading
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28The Philosophy of A.J. Ayer Edited By Lewis Edwin Hahn La Salle,Illinois Open Court. 1992 xix+696 pp., US$54.95, $26.95 paper (review)Philosophy 69 (267): 107-. 1994.
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12How much of the mind is a computerIn Peter Slezak (ed.), Computers, Brains and Minds, Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 47--69. 1989.
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38A Companion to Philosophy in Australia andNew ZealandAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 89 (4). 2011.Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Volume 89, Issue 4, Page 747-749, December 2011
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29Naming, Necessity, and Natural Kinds Edited by Stephen P. Schwartz Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977, 277 pp., £11.25, £3.95 Paper (review)Philosophy 53 (203): 126-. 1978.
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19Religious and Secular StatementsPhilosophy 49 (187). 1974.The relation between religious and scientific explanations of events and states of affairs has been the subject of much debate. For example, are the statements ‘John's life was saved by surgery’ ‘John's life was saved in answer to prayer’ in competition with each other and, if so, in what way? They do not seem to be rival causal explanations, nor are they straightforwardly contradictory. Yet each seems to cast doubt on the other, or at least to make it to some extent redundant
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33R. B. Braithwaite (1900–1990)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 41 (4): 579-580. 1990.
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656The semantics and ontology of dispositionsMind 109 (436): 757--780. 2000.The paper looks at the semantics and ontology of dispositions in the light of recent work on the subject. Objections to the simple conditionals apparently entailed by disposition statements are met by replacing them with so-called 'reduction sentences' and some implications of this are explored. The usual distinction between categorical and dispositional properties is criticised and the relation between dispositions and their bases examined. Applying this discussion to two typical cases leads to…Read more
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21Foundations: Essays in Philosophy, Logic, Mathematics, and Economics (edited book)Humanties Press; Routledge. 1978.
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What does Subjective Decision Theory Tell Us?In Hallvard Lillehammer & D. H. Mellor (eds.), Ramsey's Legacy, Oxford University Press. 2005.
Hugh Mellor
(1938 - 2020)
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Mind |
Philosophy of Physical Science |
Philosophy of Probability |
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Mind |
Philosophy of Probability |
Philosophy of Physical Science |