•  44
    Richard Swinburne: Christian Philosophy in a Modern World (edited book)
    with Sebastian Schmoranzer and Christian Weidemann
    ontos. 2008.
    Richard Swinburne is one of the most influential contemporary proponents of the analytical philosophy of religion. He is, above all, a traditional theist. However, his interests are very wide-ranging. He has written about nearly all central theological and philosophical issues such as epistemology, metaphysics, theory of mind and ethics. During the “Münstersche Vorlesungen 2007” students and faculty members of the Department of Philosophy at Münster University entered into a skilful and interes…Read more
  •  929
    The recently much discussed phenomenon of testimony as a social source of knowledge plays a crucial justificatory role in Richard Swinburne's philosophy of religion. Although Swinburne officially reduces his principle of testimony to the criterion of simplicity and, therefore, to a derivative epistemic source, we will show that simplicity does not play the crucial role in this epistemological context. We will argue that both Swinburne's philosophical ideas and his formulations allow for a fundam…Read more
  •  90
    In der heutigen schnelllebigen Welt erscheint uns der Begriff der Simultanität – der Gleichzeitigkeit – häufig eher negativ konnotiert. Er steht für das Gefühl der Überforderung im Berufs- und Alltagsleben, in welchen wir immer mehr Aufgaben in immer kürzerer Zeit erledigen, immer mehr Informationen verarbeiten, immer mehr Aufmerksamkeiten delegieren, immer mehr Aktivitäten koordinieren und in dem doch nicht länger werdenden Tagesablauf unterbringen sollen. Simultanität – in diesem umgangssprach…Read more
  •  2922
    Thought styles and paradigms—a comparative study of Ludwik Fleck and Thomas S. Kuhn
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 42 (2). 2011.
    At first glance there seem to be many similarities between Thomas S. Kuhn’s and Ludwik Fleck’s accounts of the development of scientific knowledge. Notably, both pay attention to the role played by the scientific community in the development of scientific knowledge. But putting first impressions aside, one can criticise some philosophers for being too hasty in their attempt to find supposed similarities in the works of the two men. Having acknowledged that Fleck anticipated some of Kuhn’s later …Read more
  •  1491
    Knowledge, Democracy, and the Internet
    Minerva 55 (1): 1-24. 2017.
    The internet has considerably changed epistemic practices in science as well as in everyday life. Apparently, this technology allows more and more people to get access to a huge amount of information. Some people even claim that the internet leads to a democratization of knowledge. In the following text, we will analyze this statement. In particular, we will focus on a potential change in epistemic structure. Does the internet change our common epistemic practice to rely on expert opinions? Does…Read more
  •  16
    Fotografien können als paradigmatische Instanzen des Bildbegriffs aufgefasst werden. Sie finden umfangreiche Verwendung in den Wissenschaften. Die kausale Relation zum abgebildeten Objekt sowie die vermeintliche Ähnlichkeit des Bildes mit seinem Gegenstand scheinen ihren Gebrauch als Belege im Forschungsprozess zu legitimieren. Anhand einer Fallstudie zur Oberflächenerfassung des Planeten Mars mit Hilfe einer digitalen Spezialkamera soll in diesem Beitrag untersucht werden, inwiefern Fotografien…Read more
  •  735
    Scientific Images as Circulating Ideas: An Application of Ludwik Fleck’s Theory of Thought Styles
    Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 47 (2): 307-329. 2016.
    Without doubt, there is a great diversity of scientific images both with regard to their appearances and their functions. Diagrams, photographs, drawings, etc. serve as evidence in publications, as eye-catchers in presentations, as surrogates for the research object in scientific reasoning. This fact has been highlighted by Stephen M. Downes who takes this diversity as a reason to argue against a unifying representation-based account of how visualisations play their epistemic role in science. In…Read more
  •  13
    In den Wissenschaften finden Bilder der unterschiedlichsten Art ihre Verwendung in unserem Streben nach Erkenntnis. Ein Merkmal vieler Arten wissenschaftlicher Visualisierungen besteht darin, dass sie bis dato nur theoretisch erfasste Entitäten sichtbar machen. Sie scheinen daher die Grenze zwischen Beobachtbarem und Unbeobachtbarem in entscheidender Weise zu verschieben. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird vielfach die konstruktivistische These vertreten, die Visualisierungen führten erst in ihrem Prod…Read more
  •  30
    Visual Data – Reasons to Be Relied on?
    In Nicola Mößner & Alfred Nordmann (eds.), Reasoning in Measurement, Routledge. pp. 99-110. 2017.
    In today’s science, the output of measurement processes are often visual representations of the data detected. Moreover, we find such visual data as parts of scientific reasoning in different contexts. In this article, we will take a look at two of them. On the one hand, visual representations are used as a kind of surrogate for the real object to ask questions about it – we will call this the exploratory use of visual data. On the other hand, visualisations are often used to communicate researc…Read more
  •  1103
    Photographic Evidence and the Problem of Theory-Ladenness
    Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 44 (1). 2013.
    Scientists use visualisations of different kinds in a variety of ways in their scientific work. In the following article, we will take a closer look at the use of photographic pictures as scientific evidence. In accordance with Patrick Maynard’s thesis, photography will be regarded as a family of technologies serving different purposes in divergent contexts. One of these is its ability to detect certain phenomena. Nonetheless, with regard to the philosophical thesis of theory-ladenness of observ…Read more
  •  82
    Visualisierung und Erkenntnis. Bildverstehen und Bildverwenden in Natur- und Geisteswissenschaften (edited book)
    with Dimitri Liebsch
    Herbert von Halem Verlag. 2012.
    In der Wissenschaft spielen Visualisierungen eine immer wichtigere Rolle. Sie sind zum einen Gegenstand der Forschung und zum anderen unverzichtbares Hilfsmittel bei der Präsentation und Distribution von Forschungsergebnissen. Beides stellt neue Anforderungen an den Wissenschaftler und seine praktische wie auch theoretische Arbeit und lässt nach einer kritischen Reflexion dieses Bildhandelns fragen. Was zeigen uns MRT-Bilder in der Medizin wirklich? Wie hat die Weiterentwicklung der Mikroskopie…Read more
  •  23
    Testimoniale Akte neu definiert – Ein zentrales Problem des Zeugnisses anderer
    Grazer Philosophische Studien 80 (1): 151-178. 2010.
    In comparison to other epistemic sources (perception, memory and reason) testimony is the only one dealing with the social aspects of gaining and justifying knowledge. One main problem of the current discussion about knowledge by testimony is the concept of testimony itself. It is quite unclear what the correct notion of testimony is supposed to be. In this essay I present a proposal to define the concept of testimony in making a distinction between the conditions which hold in the speaker’s con…Read more
  •  22
    Können Bilder Argumente sein?
    In Manfred Harth & Jakob Steinbrenner (eds.), Bilder als Gründe, Herbert Von Halem Verlag. 2012.
    In the following text we will consider the question whether pictures can be regarded as arguments or not. Obviously, classical philosophical approaches lead to a different opinion about this topic than our common sense intuitions, which are fostered by our usage of ordinary language. On the one hand, logicians defend the thesis that arguments are of a linguistic kind. On the other hand, there are everyday contexts where, nevertheless, it seems appropriate to ascribe pictures the status of argume…Read more
  •  9
    Against Coherence. Truth, Probability, and Justification (review)
    Zeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 61 (3). 2007.