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61Resisting Chemical Atomism: Duhem’s ArgumentPhilosophy of Science 75 (5): 921-931. 2008.Late nineteenth‐century opponents of atomism questioned whether the evidence required any notion of an atom. In this spirit, Duhem developed an account of the import of chemical formulas that is clearly neutral on the atomic question rather than antiatomistic. The argument is supplemented with specific inadequacies of atomic theories of chemical combination and considerably strengthened by the theory of chemical combination provided by thermodynamics. Despite possible counterevidence available a…Read more
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72Substance and TimeBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 61 (3): 485-512. 2010.‘Water is H 2 O’ is naturally construed as an equivalence. What are the things to which the two predicates ‘is water’ and ‘is H 2 O’ apply? The equivalence presupposes that substance properties are distinguished from phase properties. A substance like water (H 2 O) exhibits various phases (solid, liquid, gas) under appropriate conditions, and a given (say liquid) phase may comprise several substances. What general features distinguish substance from phase properties? I tackle these questions on …Read more
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131Reduction and abduction in chemistry‐a response to ScerriInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 13 (2). 1999.Eric Scerri has proposed an account of how reduction might be understood in chemistry. He claims to build on a general aspect of Popper's views which survives his otherwise heavy criticism, namely adherence to actual scientific practice. This is contrasted with Nagel's conception, which Scerri takes to be the philosopher's standard notion. I argue that his proposal, interesting though it is, is not so foreign to ideas in the tradition within which Nagel wrote as Scerri would have us believe. Mor…Read more
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67StuffAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 71 (3): 270-290. 1993.This Article does not have an abstract
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76Macroscopic processesPhilosophy of Science 66 (2): 310-331. 1999.Bodies as conceived in macroscopic theories are loosely spoken of as participating in processes. But are there any systematic reasons for regarding processes as part of the ontology of macroscopic theory? The present paper suggests that suitable motivation can be found within a project of describing a phenomenological, macroscopic ontology for equilibrium thermodynamics, and outlines some aspects of the interrelation between continuant bodies and processes.
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52Natural Kind ThingamajigsInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 26 (1). 2012.I criticize the treatment of natural kinds as some sort of object, advocated in a recent paper by Alexander Bird. The arguments he gives for regimenting an illustrative statement featuring chemical kinds in his preferred manner are not conclusive, and his criticisms of an alternative strategy involving universally quantified sentences fail. This is important because of the widespread but poorly supported assumption that expressions of natural kinds should be treated as singular referring terms
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49Mixtures and modalityFoundations of Chemistry 7 (1): 103-118. 2004.Some points are made about substance properties in their role of introducing mass terms. In particular, two conditions of distributivity and cumulativity of mass predicates expressing these properties are not the independent pair they first appear to be. A classification of macroscopic substance concepts is developed. This needs to be complemented in some way by the introduction of a modal qualification reminiscent of Aristotle's distinction between actual and potential presence of substances in…Read more
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26Questioning the Justification of Past Science (Review of "Is Water H2O? Evidence, Realism and Pluralism") (review)International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 27 (1). 2013.Review article of Hasok Chang, Is Water H2O?: Evidence, Realism and Pluralism, Springer, Dordrecht, 2012
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154Nagel's analysis of reduction: Comments in defense as well as critiqueStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 41 (2): 163-170. 2010.Despite all the criticism showered on Nagel’s classic account of reduction, it meets a fundamental desideratum in an analysis of reduction that is difficult to question, namely of providing for a proper identification of the reducing theory. This is not clearly accommodated in radically different accounts. However, the same feature leads me to question Nagel’s claim that the reducing theory can be separated from the putative bridge laws, and thus to question his notion of heterogeneous reduction…Read more
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Law and Order: Issues in the Philosophy of ScienceUppsala Universitet. 1988.This is an undergraduate text in the philosophy of science dealing with the progression from logical positivism to more modern, history-influenced ideas in the area.
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157Macroscopic MixturesJournal of Philosophy 104 (1): 26-52. 2007.This paper takes up issues related to the notion of chemical substances arising from their mereological and modal features. Related notions are elements and compounds, into which substances are sub-divided, and the general notion of mixture, which as a special case might involve several substances, but covers other cases too. These are essentially macroscopic concepts. Some of the chemical arguments for this claim have been presented elsewhere. The present paper is a metaphysical treatment of m…Read more
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122Microessentialism: What is the Argument?Noûs 45 (1): 1-21. 2011.According to microessentialism, it is necessary to resort to microstructure in order to adequately characterise chemical substances such as water. But the thesis has never been properly supported by argument. Kripke and Putnam, who originally proposed the thesis, suggest that a so-called stereotypical characterisation is not possible, whereas one in terms of microstructure is. However, the sketchy outlines given of stereotypical descriptions hardly support the impossibility claim. On the other h…Read more
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81Is water a mixure?: bridging the distinction between physical and chemical propertiesStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 39 (1): 66-77. 2008.Two inter-linked theses are defended in this paper. One is the Duhemian theme that a rigid distinction between physical and chemical properties cannot be upheld. Duhem maintained this view not because the latter are reducible to the former, but because if physics is to remain consistent with chemistry it must prove possible to expand it to accommodate new features, and a rigid distinction would be a barrier to this process. The second theme is that naturally occurring isotopic variants of water …Read more
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204Ontological reduction: A comment on Lombardi and labarcaFoundations of Chemistry 8 (1): 73-80. 2006.In a recent article in this journal (Foundations of Chemistry, 7 (2005), 125–148) Lombardi and Labarca call into question a thesis of ontological reduction to which several writers on reduction subscribe despite rejecting a thesis of epistemological reduction. Lombardi and Labarca advocate instead a pluralistic ontology inspired by Putnam’s internal realism. I suggest that it is not necessary to go so far, and that a more critical view of the ontological reduction espoused by the authors they cr…Read more
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51Maureen Christie: The ozone layer. A philosophy of science perspective (review)Foundations of Chemistry 5 (3): 253-261. 2003.
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29Nineteenth-century chemical theory: correction of a misunderstandingFoundations of Chemistry 16 (2): 165-167. 2013.I reply in this short note to some criticisms that Alan Rocke has recently made in this journal
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44Mixture and chemical combination and related essays: A response to Robert Deltete and Anastasios BrennerFoundations of Chemistry 6 (3): 233-245. 2004.Robert Deltete and Anastasios Brenner have provided a thorough examination of my translation of Duhem’s Le mixte et la combinaison chimique (1902) and associated essays. I am very grateful for their efforts and gratified that such competent reviewers should be generally positive. They provide an overview of relevant aspects of Duhem’s life and work, which may serve to introduce him to readers of this journal and promote interest in Duhem studies. They also raise and answer some questions abou…Read more
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42Om reduktionSATS 5 (2). 2004.A general analysis of reduction is as important to critics who deny reductionist claims as to their advocates. Nagel’s analysis continued to find favour amongst such critics after advocates sought alternatives—often attempted generalisations of perceived specific paradigm cases of reductive identification, such as temperature and mean molecular kinetic energy. The pros and cons of Nagel’s account are discussed, but the difficulties are not satisfactorily overcome by approaches advanced by Caus…Read more
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1Hot StuffPoznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 76 421-446. 2000.Are there events? If so, how are they to be conceived? A line of argument motivating ontological commitment to what I prefer to call processes is presented, drawing primarily on the development of the elementary understanding of thermal processes, but pointing to a broader view by analogical extension. Suggestions are made for an approach to the mereological structure of processes, and some comments are offered of linguistic distinctions sometimes applied to processes and to modal features of…Read more
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43Duhem, Pierre-Maurice-MarieIn Noretta Koertge (ed.), New Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Thomson Gale. 2007.
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48Causation: Relation or Connective?Dialectica 42 (3): 201-220. 1988.Davidson's account of singular causal statements as expressing relations between events together with his views on event identity lead to inferences involving causal statements which many of his critics find counterintuitive. These are sometimes said to be avoided on Kim's view of events, in terms of which this line of criticism is often formulated. It is argued that neither Davidson nor Kim offer a satisfactory account of events — an essential prerequisit for the relational theory — and an acco…Read more
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69Duhem and QuineDialectica 54 (2): 109-132. 2000.The rejection of the idea that the so‐called Duhem‐Quine thesis in fact expresses a thesis upheld by either Duhem or Quine invites a more detailed comparison of their views. It is suggested that the arguments of each have a certain impact on the positions maintained by the other. In particular, Quine's development of his notion of ontological commitment is enlisted in the interpretation of Duhem's position. It is argued that this counts against the instrumentalist construal usually put on what D…Read more
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60Determining Sameness of SubstanceBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 68 (4): 953-979. 2017.ABSTRACT The idea that the extension of a chemical substance is fixed by determining what stands in the relation of being the same substance to a paradigm sample plays a substantial role in chemistry, and procedures of identification that don’t make direct use of the method can be traced back to ones that do. But paradigm samples are not typically selected by ostension, as in Putnam’s version of this procedure. The relevance of ostension is questioned after a discussion of the establishment of p…Read more
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57Has Daltonian atomism provided chemistry with any explanations?Philosophy of Science 71 (5): 1038-1047. 2004.Philosophers frequently cite Dalton's chemical atomism, and its nineteenth century developments, as a prime example of inference to the best explanation. This was a controversial issue in its time. But the critics are dismissed as positivist‐inspired antirealists with no interest in explanation. Is this a reasonable assessment?
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14Duhem's Moderate RealismMetascience 20 (1): 7-12. 2011.Contribution to a symposium: New Perspectives on Pierre Duhem’s Aim and structure of physical theory.
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68Continuants and processes in macroscopic chemistryAxiomathes 14 (1-3): 237-265. 2004.Chemistry deals with substances and their transformations. School chemistry provides a picture of this in terms of small balls called atoms and ball-and-stick structures called molecules which, despite its crudity, has been taken to justifiably reflect a reductionist conception of macroscopic concepts like the chemical substances and chemical reactions. But with the recent interest in chemistry within the philosophy of science, an extensive and determined criticism has developed of the idea that…Read more
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57Hydrogen bonding: Homing in on a tricky chemical conceptStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 44 (1): 51-65. 2013.The history of the hydrogen bond provides a good example of the of an important chemical concept. It illustrates the interplay between empirical and theoretical approaches to the problem of delimiting what has proved to be quite an elusive notion, with chemists whittling away at the particular sorts of case with a view to obtaining a precise, unitary concept. Even though there is a return to a more theoretically inspired notion in more recent research, empirical characterisations remain a featur…Read more
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76Duhem's physicalismStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 29 (1): 33-62. 1998.Duhem is often described as an anti-realist or instrumentalist. A contrary view has recently been expressed by Martin (1991) (Pierre Duhem: Philosophy and History in the Work of a Believing Physicist (La Salle, IL: Open Court)), who suggests that this interpretation makes it difficult to understand the vantage point from which Duhem argues in La science allemande (1915) that deduction, however impeccable, cannot establish truths unless it begins with truths. In the same spirit, the present paper…Read more
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Modality |
Objects |
Ontology |
Realism and Anti-Realism |
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Philosophy of Chemistry |
Logic and Philosophy of Logic, Miscellaneous |
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Metaphysics |