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97Acidity: The Persistence of the Everyday in the ScientificPhilosophy of Science 79 (5): 690-700. 2012.Acidity provides an interesting example of an everyday concept that developed fully into a scientific one; it is one of the oldest concepts in chemistry and remains an important one. However, up to now there has been no unity to it. Currently two standard theoretical definitions coexist ; the standard laboratory measure of acidity, namely the pH, only corresponds directly to the Br⊘nsted-Lowry concept. The lasting identity of the acidity concept in modern chemistry is based on the persistence of…Read more
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75What the ravens really teach us : the intrinsic contextuality of evidenceIn Philip Dawid, William Twining & Mimi Vasilaki (eds.), Evidence, Inference and Enquiry, Oup/british Academy. 2011.This chapter advances a contextual view of evidence, through a reconsideration of Hempel's paradox of confirmation. The initial view regarding Hempel's paradox is that a non-black non-raven does confirm ‘All ravens are black’, but only in certain contexts. The chapter begins by reformulating the paradox as a puzzle about how the same entity can have variable evidential values for a given proposition. It then offers a three-stage solution to the reformulated paradox. The situation makes better se…Read more
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12Seeking ultimates: an intuitive guide to physicsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 33 (2): 368-371. 2002.
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18History and philosophy of science as a continuation of science by other meansScience & Education 8 (4): 413-425. 1999.
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80Circularity and reliability in measurementPerspectives on Science 3 (2): 153-172. 1995.The direct use of a physical law for the purpose of measurement creates a problem of circularity: the law needs to be empirically tested in order to ensure the reliability of measurement, but the testing requires that we already know the value of the quantity to be measured. This problem is discussed through some detailed examples of energy measurements in quantum physics; three major methods are analyzed in their interrelation, with a focus on the method of “material retardation.” It seems that…Read more
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225A Case for Old‐Fashioned Observability, and a Reconstructed Constructive EmpiricismPhilosophy of Science 72 (5): 876-887. 2005.I develop a concept of observability that pertains to qualities rather than objects: a quality is observable if it can be registered by human sensation (possibly with the aid of instruments) without involving optional interpretations. This concept supports a better description of observations in science and everyday life than the object-based observability concepts presupposing causal information-transfer from the object to the observer. It also allows a rehabilitation of the traditional empiric…Read more
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248The Persistence of Epistemic Objects Through Scientific ChangeErkenntnis 75 (3): 413-429. 2011.Why do some epistemic objects persist despite undergoing serious changes, while others go extinct in similar situations? Scientists have often been careless in deciding which epistemic objects to retain and which ones to eliminate; historians and philosophers of science have been on the whole much too unreflective in accepting the scientists’ decisions in this regard. Through a re-examination of the history of oxygen and phlogiston, I will illustrate the benefits to be gained from challenging an…Read more
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Physical Science |
General Philosophy of Science |