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17Three Dogmas of ExplanationHistory and Theory 47 (1): 57-68. 2008.What ought to count as an explanation? Such normative questions—what “ought to be” the case?—typically mark the domain that those with a type of philosophical aspiration call their own. Debates in the philosophy of history have for too long been marred by bad advice from just such aspirants. The recurrent suggestion has been that historians have a particular need for a theory of explanation since they seem to have none of their own. But neither the study of the natural sciences nor the study of …Read more
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9Review of Paul Andrew Roth: Meaning and Method in the Social Sciences: A Case for Methodological Pluralism (review)Ethics 99 (2): 434-435. 1989.
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56Narrative Explanations: The Case of HistoryHistory and Theory 27 (1): 1-13. 1988.The very idea of narrative explanation invites two objections: a methodological objection, stating that narrative structure is too far from the form of a scientific explanation to count as an explanation, and a metaphysical objection, stating that narrative structure situates historical practice too close to the writing of fiction. Both of these objections, however, are illfounded. The methodological objection and the dispute regarding the status of historical explanation can be disposed of by r…Read more
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61Chaos, Clio, and Scientistic Illusions of UnderstandingHistory and Theory 34 (1): 30-44. 1995.A number of authors have recently argued that the mathematical insights of "chaos theory" offer a promising formal model or significant analogy for understanding at least some historical events. We examine a representative claim of each kind regarding the application of chaos theory to problems of historical explanation. We identify two lines of argument. One we term the Causal Thesis, which states that chaos theory may be used to plausibly model, and so explain, historical events. The other we …Read more
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59Politics and epistemology: Rorty, MacIntyre, and the ends of philosophyHistory of the Human Sciences 2 (2): 171-191. 1989.In this paper, I examine how a manifest disagreement between Richard Rorty and Alasdair MacIntyre concerning the history of philosophy is but one of a series of deep and interrelated disagreements concerning, in addition, the history of science, the good life for human beings, and, ultimately, the character of and prospects for humankind as well. I shall argue that at the heart of this series of disagreements rests a dispute with regard to the nature of rationality. And this disagreement concern…Read more
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36Logic and translation: A reply to Alan BergerJournal of Philosophy 79 (3): 154-163. 1982.The article argues, "contra" berger, that quine's advocacy alleged of classical logic is not based on any alleged "fit" between classical logic and some empirical account of language learning. roth begins by examining berger's claim that quine has changed his position on the acceptability of alternative logics. in berger's account, quine now accepts alternative logics because he could not defend his commitment to classical logic alone based on empirical evidence (e.g., verdict tables). roth argu…Read more
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62The disappearance of the empirical: Some reflections on contemporary culture theory and historiographyJournal of the Philosophy of History 1 (3): 271-292. 2007.This paper surveys the parallel fates of the notion of the empirical in philosophy of science in the 20th century and the notion of experience as evidence in one important line of debate in historiography/philosophy of history. The focus concerns the presumably crucial role some notion of the empirical plays in the assessment of knowledge claims. The significance of 'the empirical' disappears on the assumption that theories either determine what counts as experience or explain away any apparentl…Read more
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28History and the manifest image: Hayden white as a philosopher of history1History and Theory 52 (1): 130-143. 2013.
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16Review of William Rehg, Cogent Science in Context: The Science Wars, Argumentation Theory, and Habermas (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2009 (10). 2009.
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136The philosophy of history: An agendaJournal of the Philosophy of History 1 (1): 1-9. 2007.The Founding declaration of the journal.
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What Does the Sociology of Scientific Knowlegde ExplainIn Irving Velody & Robin Williams (eds.), The Politics of Constructionism, Sage Publications. pp. 69--82. 1998.
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29Microfoundations Without Foundations: Comments on LittleSouthern Journal of Philosophy 34 (S1): 57-64. 1996.
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48Three grades of normative involvement: Risjord, Stueber, and Henderson on norms and explanationPhilosophy of the Social Sciences 35 (3): 339-352. 2005.What makes for a good explanation of a person’s actions? Their reasons, or soa natural reply goes. But how do reasons function as part of explanations, that is, within an account of the causes of action? Here philosophers divide concerning the logical relation in which reasons stand to actions. For, tradition holds, reasons evaluatively characterized must be causally inert, inasmuch as the normative features cannot be found in any account of the empirical/descriptive. To countenance reasons as c…Read more
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22The anti-social epistemology of narrative experimentsSocial Epistemology 5 (4). 1991.No abstract
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27Dubious liaisons: A review of Alvin Goldman's liaisons: Philosophy meets the cognitive and social sciences (review)Philosophical Psychology 9 (2). 1996.Alvin Goldman's recent collection (Goldman, 1992) includes many of the important and seminal contributions made by him over the last three decades to epistemology, philosophy of mind, and analytic metaphysics. Goldman is an acknowledged leader in efforts to put material from cognitive and social science to good philosophical use. This is the “liaison” which Goldman takes his own work to exemplify and advance. Yet the essays contained in Liaisons chart an important evolution in Goldman's own view…Read more
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28New Philosophy of Social Science: Problems of IndeterminacyMetaphilosophy 26 (4): 440-448. 1995.This article defends methodological and theoretical pluralism in the social sciences. While pluralistic, such a philosophy of social science is both pragmatic and normative. Only by facing the problems of such pluralism, including how to resolve the potential conflicts between various methods and theories, is it possible to discover appropriate criteria of adequacy for social scientific explanations and interpretations. So conceived, the social sciences do not give us fixed and universal feature…Read more
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34Review of Hilary Kornblith, Knowledge and its Place in Nature (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2003 (12). 2003.
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3Book Reviews : Objectivity, Empiricism and Truth. By R. H. Newell. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986. Pp. 124. $24.95 (cloth (review)Philosophy of the Social Sciences 19 (2): 244-247. 1989.
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609The silence of the norms: The missing historiography of The Structure of Scientific RevolutionsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 44 (4): 545-552. 2013.History has been disparaged since the late 19th century for not conforming to norms of scientific explanation. Nonetheless, as a matter of fact a work of history upends the regnant philosophical conception of science in the second part of the 20th century. Yet despite its impact, Kuhn’s Structure has failed to motivate philosophers to ponder why works of history should be capable of exerting rational influence on an understanding of philosophy of science. But all this constitutes a great irony a…Read more
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10MURRAY G. MURPHEY, "Philosophical Foundations of Historical Knowledge" (review)History and Theory 34 (3): 231. 1995.
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80The epistemology of "epistemology naturalized"Dialectica 53 (2). 1999.Quine's “Epistemology Naturalized” has become part of the canon in epistemology and excited a widespread revival of interest in naturalism. Yet the status accorded the essay is ironic, since both friends and foes of philosophical naturalism deny that Quine makes a plausible case that the methods of naturalism can accommodate the problems of epistemology
Santa Cruz, California, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Epistemology |
Philosophy of Social Science |
20th Century Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Metaphilosophy |
Philosophy of Language |
Philosophy of Physical Science |