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50Laws of Nature, Corpuscules, and ConcourseJournal of Philosophical Research 19 373-393. 1994.It has been said that Robert Boyle gave in the century of The Scientific Revolution the “fullest expression” of the view that laws of nature are continually impressed by God (“occasionalism”). So regarded, the universe is anything but an autonomous machine, its ordered operation depending on God’s continuous imposition of lawful, patterned relations between phenomena and his continuous provision of motion for them to actually enter relations. The present paper contests this treatment of Boyle. E…Read more
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112Edward Shils' theory of traditionPhilosophy of the Social Sciences 37 (2): 139-162. 2007.Edward Shils presented his book Tradition (1981) as the first extensive study of the subject. This article casts light on Shils' multifaceted understanding of tradition, comprising pragmatic, Burkean, veridical, and evolutionist perspectives. His typology of traditions is noted, and his view of institutional bearers of tradition described. In assessing Shils' theory, however, we find that it overreaches, collapsing differences that exist between traditions, transmissions, and the traditional. Ke…Read more
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33The genesis of 'scientific community'Social Epistemology 16 (2). 2001.This Article does not have an abstract
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24It is a testimony to the enduring importance of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions that, 30 years on, its doctrines of normal science and paradigm, incommensurability and revolution continue to challenge metascien tists and stimulate vigorous debate. Critique has mainly come from philosophers and historians; by and large, interested sociologists have embraced Kuhn. Un justifiably so, this article argues, bringing to light a serious difficulty or anom aly in his account of the …Read more
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77Michael Polanyi and Thomas Kuhn: Priority and CreditTradition and Discovery 33 (2): 25-36. 2006.The article argues that Polanyi was a likely source of influence on the theory of science that Kuhn developed in his The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. The striking similarity between Kuhn’s idea ofincommuensurability and Polanyi’s rendering of scientific controversy in Personal Knowledge is featured here, and is used to expose a tension between Polanyi's notions of scientific controversy and unfolding truth.
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9Bentham, science and the construction of jurisprudenceHistory of European Ideas 12 (5): 583-594. 1990.
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67Thoughts on Political Sources of Karl Popper’s Philosophy of ScienceJournal of Philosophical Research 24 445-457. 1999.How did Karl Popper arrive at his theory of science? Popper believed that Einstein’s general theory of relativity and his attitudes of modesty and self-criticism were all important.This paper challenges details in Popper’s account and suggests an alternative interpretation of the formation of his theory. It is held that his disillusionment with Marxism predated and conditioned his understanding of Einstein, and that the liberalism of J. S. Mill may have exercised an influence. Political ideas an…Read more
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28Tradition as a Topic of Philosophic Interest in Britain in the 1940sJournal of Philosophical Research 37 313-335. 2012.Between 1945 and 1948, Michael Polanyi, Michael Oakeshott, and Karl Popper respectively discussed the nature of tradition, and the part that traditions play in free societies. This article analyzes these thinkers’ ideas of tradition. Polanyi depicted tradition as knowledge that is embodied in skilled practice, and tradition for Oakeshott consists in activities that are suffused with practical knowledge and technique. Popper emphasized rational criticizability, whereas Polanyi and Oakeshott empha…Read more
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48Polanyi's presagement of the incommensurability conceptStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 33 (1): 101-116. 2002.Kuhn and Feyerabend have little to say about the thought of Michael Polanyi, and the secondary literature on Polanyi's relation to them is meagre. I argue that Polanyi's view, in Personal knowledge and in other writings, of conceptual frameworks ‘segregated’ by a ‘logical gap’ as giving rise to controversies in science foreshadowed Kuhn and Feyerabend's theme of incommensurability. The similarity between the thinkers is, I suggest, no coincidence.
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12Laws of Nature, Corpuscules, and ConcourseJournal of Philosophical Research 19 373-393. 1994.It has been said that Robert Boyle gave in the century of The Scientific Revolution the “fullest expression” of the view that laws of nature are continually impressed by God (“occasionalism”). So regarded, the universe is anything but an autonomous machine, its ordered operation depending on God’s continuous imposition of lawful, patterned relations between phenomena and his continuous provision of motion for them to actually enter relations. The present paper contests this treatment of Boyle. E…Read more
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52From Logic to Liberty: Theories of Knowledge in Two Works of John Stuart MillCanadian Journal of Philosophy 16 (4). 1986.This paper is designed to reinterpret and clarify John Stuart Mill's ideas on science. Past discussions of these ideas strike me as unsatisfactory in two crucial respects. In the first place they have encouraged us to regard Mill's principal work on epistemology, A System of Logic, as fundamentally inductivist This is the received interpretation of Mill's Logic and one finds it summarized and affirmed in the remark of Laurens Laudan that 'by and large' Mill was 'a rather orthodox inductivist who…Read more
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131Tradition in a Free Society: The Fideism of Michael Polanyi and the Rationalism of Karl PopperTradition and Discovery 36 (2): 8-25. 2009.Michael Polanyi and Karl Popper offer contrasting accounts of social tradition. Popper is steeped in the heritage of the Enlightenment, while Polanyi interweaves religious and diverse secular strands of thought. Explaining the liberal tradition, Polanyi features tacit knowledge of rules, standards, applications and interpretations being transmitted by “craftsmen” to “apprentices.” Each generation adopts the liberal tradition on “faith,” commits to creatively developing its art of knowledge-in-pr…Read more
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6Science and British Liberalism : Locke, Bentham, Mill, and PopperAshgate Publishing. 1991.The thinking of these philosophers is examined to assess the extent to which science affected their theories of social and political life. The book shows that the general notion of English liberalism being grounded in science is incorrect. It offers a broad study of the interface between theories of science and liberal political thought and sheds new light on the four philosophers.
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12Michael Polanyi on the education and knowledge of scientistsScience & Education 9 (3): 309-320. 2000.
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20Brains/practices/relativism: social theory after cognitive science/Stephen TurnerTradition and Discovery 31 (2): 49-50. 2004.
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13Thoughts on Political Sources of Karl Popper’s Philosophy of ScienceJournal of Philosophical Research 24 445-457. 1999.How did Karl Popper arrive at his theory of science? Popper believed that Einstein’s general theory of relativity and his attitudes of modesty and self-criticism were all important.This paper challenges details in Popper’s account and suggests an alternative interpretation of the formation of his theory. It is held that his disillusionment with Marxism predated and conditioned his understanding of Einstein, and that the liberalism of J. S. Mill may have exercised an influence. Political ideas an…Read more
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11Tradition as a Topic of Philosophic Interest in Britain in the 1940sJournal of Philosophical Research 37 313-335. 2012.Between 1945 and 1948, Michael Polanyi, Michael Oakeshott, and Karl Popper respectively discussed the nature of tradition, and the part that traditions play in free societies. This article analyzes these thinkers’ ideas of tradition. Polanyi depicted tradition as knowledge that is embodied in skilled practice, and tradition for Oakeshott consists in activities that are suffused with practical knowledge and technique. Popper emphasized rational criticizability, whereas Polanyi and Oakeshott empha…Read more
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42Post‐liberalism vs. temperate liberalismCritical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 4 (3): 365-375. 1990.John Gray's recent critique of liberalism, and his case for an apparently relativistic ?post?Pyrrhonian?; political philosophy, are shown to be wanting. Weaknesses in Gray's critique are identified and discussed: the characterization of liberalism as universally prescriptive, confusion about whether liberalism is a genuine tradition, and misunderstanding of the relation between conduct and the value of freedom. A formulation of liberalism that is not universalist ("temperate?; liberalism) is off…Read more
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50Limits to problem solving in scienceInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 15 (3). 2001.Popper, Polanyi and Duncker represent the widely held position that theoretical and experimental scientific research are motivated by problems to which discoveries are solutions. According to the argument here, their views are unsupported and - in light of counter-instances, anomalous chance discoveries, and the force of curiosity - over-generalized.
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62J. B. Conant's other assistant: Science as depicted by Leonard K. Nash, including reference to Thomas KuhnPerspectives on Science 18 (3): 328-351. 2010.Born in 1918 in New York, awarded a doctorate in analytical chemistry (1944), Leonard K. Nash enjoyed a distinguished career at Harvard, holding a chair of chemistry from 1959 to 1986. Conducting research in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, Nash authored successful textbooks, some of which remain in print (e.g. Elements of Chemical Thermodynamics, and Elements of Statistical Thermodynamics).This essay describes the theory of science that Nash developed in a book he published in 1963, Th…Read more
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7Abilita artigianale, conoscenza tacita e altri elementi della praica: la prospettiva di Michael PolanyiDiscipline Filosofiche 14 (1): 101-118. 2004.
Areas of Interest
19th Century Philosophy |
20th Century Philosophy |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |