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173From ugly duckling to Swan: C. S. Peirce, abduction, and the pursuit of scientific theoriesTransactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 44 (3). 2008.Jaakko Hintikka (1998) has argued that clarifying the notion of abduction is the fundamental problem of contemporary epistemology. One traditional interpretation of Peirce on abduction sees it as a recipe for generating new theoretical discoveries . A second standard view sees abduction as a mode of reasoning that justifies beliefs about the probable truth of theories. While each reading has some grounding in Peirce's writings, each leaves out features that are crucial to Peirce's distinctive un…Read more
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Was Delbrück a Reductionist?In Phillip R. Sloan & Brandon Fogel (eds.), Creating a Physical Biology: The Three Man Paper and Early Molecular Biology, University of Chicago Press. 2011.
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1Darwin’s Descent of Man and the Value of Studying Science from a Liberal Arts PerspectiveIn Dustin Gish, Christopher Constas & J. Scott Lee (eds.), The Quest for Excellence: Liberal Arts, Sciences, and Core Texts. Selected Proceedings from the Seventeenth Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses, Rowman & Littlefield. 2016.
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119Voles, vasopressin, and infidelity: a molecular basis for monogamy, a platform for ethics, and more?Biology and Philosophy 27 (4): 521-543. 2012.Voles are attracting attention because genetic variation at a single locus appears to have a profound impact on a complex social behavior, namely monogamy. After briefly reviewing the state of the most relevant scientific literature, I examine the way that this research gets taken up by the popular media, by scientists, and by the notable philosopher of neuroscience Patricia Churchland and interpreted as having deeply revisionary implications for how we ordinarily understand ourselves as persons…Read more
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807Action-Centered Faith, Doubt, and RationalityJournal of Philosophical Research 41 (9999): 71-90. 2016.Popular discussions of faith often assume that having faith is a form of believing on insufficient evidence and that having faith is therefore in some way rationally defective. Here I offer a characterization of action-centered faith and show that action-centered faith can be both epistemically and practically rational even under a wide variety of subpar evidential circumstances.
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Models, ScientificIn Robert Fastiggi (ed.), New Catholic Encyclopedia (Supplement 2012-13: Ethics and Philosophy), Gale-cengage Learning. 2013.
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CounterintuitiveIn Robert Audi (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 3rd ed., Cambridge University Press. 2015.
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658On the value of faith and faithfulnessInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 81 (1-2): 7-29. 2017.There was a time when Greco-Roman culture recognized faith as an indispensable social good. More recently, however, the value of faith has been called into question, particularly in connection with religious commitment. What, if anything, is valuable about faith—in the context of ordinary human relations or as a distinctive stance people might take in relation to God? I approach this question by examining the role that faith talk played both in ancient Jewish and Christian communities and in the…Read more
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121How values in scientific discovery and pursuit Alter theory appraisalPhilosophy of Science 76 (5): 598-611. 2009.Philosophers of science readily acknowledge that nonepistemic values influence the discovery and pursuit of scientific theories, but many tend to regard these influences as epistemically uninteresting. The present paper challenges this position by identifying three avenues through which nonepistemic values associated with discovery and pursuit in contemporary pollution research influence theory appraisal: (1) by guiding the choice of questions and research projects, (2) by altering experimental …Read more
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1Empirical AdequacyIn Robert Audi (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 3rd ed., Cambridge University Press. 2015.
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40Special issue: approaches to faith: Guest editorial prefaceInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 81 (1-2): 1-6. 2017.According to many accounts of faith—where faith is thought of as something psychological, e.g., an attitude, state, or trait—one cannot have faith without belief of the relevant propositions. According to other accounts of faith, one can have faith without belief of the relevant propositions. Call the first sort of account doxasticism since it insists that faith requires belief; call the second nondoxasticism since it allows faith without belief. The New Testament may seem to favor doxasticism o…Read more
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26Backtracking and the Ethics of Framing: Lessons from Voles and VasopressinScience 338 (6112): 341-344. 2012.When communicating scientific information, experts often face difficult choices about how to promote public understanding while also maintaining an appropriate level of objectivity. We argue that one way for scientists and others involved in communicating scientific information to alleviate these tensions is to pay closer attention to the major frames employed in the contexts in which they work. By doing so, they can ideally employ useful frames while also enabling the recipients of information …Read more
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Ockham’s RazorIn Robert Fastiggi (ed.), New Catholic Encyclopedia (Supplement 2012-13: Ethics and Philosophy), Gale-cengage. 2013.
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Constructive EmpiricismIn Robert Audi (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 3rd ed., Cambridge University Press. 2015.
APA Eastern Division
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Areas of Specialization
General Philosophy of Science |
Epistemology |
Philosophy of Religion |
Faith |
Philosophy of Biology |
PhilPapers Editorships
Faith |