-
60Meaning relations and modalitiesNoûs 3 (2): 155-167. 1969.Modalities explained through the idea of a logical space
-
375On McMullin’s Appreciation of Realism Concerning the SciencesPhilosophy of Science 70 (3): 479-492. 2003.Constructive empiricism is indeed set squarely within a common sense realism that was foreign to much of the empiricist tradition. But I do not see this common sense realism, which I take myself to share with many scientific realists, as harboring or leading to scientific realism. That is in part because of the way I separate the opposition between empiricist and realist understanding of science from other issues that divide us in epistemology. This discussion brought to light our quite differen…Read more
-
71On Massey's explication of grünbaum's conception of metricPhilosophy of Science 36 (4): 346-353. 1969.Professor Massey's exposition and analysis [5] of Professor Grünbaum's writings on metric aspects of space seem to me both very helpful in understanding those writings and to contain a considerable original contribution to the subject. Nevertheless I would like to argue that there is an alternative to Massey's explication which seems to me more faithful to Grünbaum's remarks; it seems at least to have the virtue of not forcing Grünbaum to reject the usual mathematical definitions of the notions …Read more
-
78One hundred and fifty years of philosophyTopoi 25 (1-2): 123-127. 2006.Looking back from 2049 over one-hundred and fifty years of philosophy, a student's essay reveals what became of rival strands in Western philosophy – with a sidelong glance at the special Topoi issue on the theme “Philosophy: What is to be Done?” that was published almost half a century earlier.
-
185One or Two Gentle Remarks about Hans Halvorson’s Critique of the Semantic ViewPhilosophy of Science 81 (2). 2014.In recent papers Hans Halvorson has offered a critique of the semantic view of theories, showing that theories may be the same although the corresponding sets of models are different and, conversely, that theories may be different although the corresponding sets of models are the same. This critique will be assessed, first, as it pertains to issues concerning scientific models in the empirical sciences and, second, independent of any concern with empirical science.
-
75Objectivity, invariance, and convention: Symmetry in physical scienceStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 40 (1): 84-87. 2009.
-
47Logical Structure In Plato's "Sophist"Review of Metaphysics 22 (3): 482-498. 1969.The most important point about Plato's terminology in the Sophist is Cornford's: "Plato, here as elsewhere, wisely refuses to let any one metaphor to harden into a technical term." Since the wisdom of this course of action rests on the degree to which it satisfies Plato's purposes, we may not be disrespectful in hardening these metaphors for the purposes of our discussion.
-
137Modeling and Measurement: The Criterion of Empirical GroundingPhilosophy of Science 79 (5): 773-784. 2012.A scientific theory offers models for the phenomena in its domain; these models involve theoretical quantities, and a model's structure is the set of relations it imposes on these quantities. A fundamental demand in scientific practice is for those quantities to be clearly and feasibly related to measurement. This demand for empirical grounding can be articulated by displaying the theory-dependent criteria for a procedure to count as a measurement and for identifying the quantity it measures.
-
45Michel Ghins on the Empirical Versus the TheoreticalFoundations of Physics 30 (10): 1655-1661. 2000.Michel Ghins and I are both empiricists, and agree significantly in our critique of “traditional” empiricist epistemology. We differ however in some respects in our interpretation of the scientific enterprise. Ghins argues for a moderate scientific realism which includes the view that acceptance of a scientific theory will bring with it belief in the existence of all those entities, among the entities the theory postulates, that satisfy certain criteria. For Ghins these criteria derive from the …Read more
-
103Modal Interpretation of Repeated Measurement: A Rejoinder to Leeds and HealeyPhilosophy of Science 64 (4): 669-676. 1997.A recent article argues that the modal interpretation of quantum mechanics does not do justice to immediately repeated non-disturbing measurements. This objection has been raised before, but the article presents it in a new, detailed, precise form. I show that the objection is mistaken.
-
5La logique et le Soi : les suites de certaines crises de la pensée occidentaleDiogène 232 (4): 28. 2010.
-
682Laws and symmetryOxford University Press. 1989.Metaphysicians speak of laws of nature in terms of necessity and universality; scientists, in terms of symmetry and invariance. In this book van Fraassen argues that no metaphysical account of laws can succeed. He analyzes and rejects the arguments that there are laws of nature, or that we must believe there are, and argues that we should disregard the idea of law as an adequate clue to science. After exploring what this means for general epistemology, the author develops the empiricist view of …Read more
-
3Lois et symétrieVrin. 1994.Bas C. Van Fraassen. PRÉSENTATION Bas van Fraassen est l'un des philosophes les plus respectés, ainsi que l'un des plus discutés actuellement, dans la philosophie des sciences de tradition analytique. Hollandais d'origine, Canadien de ...
-
1Logic and Philosophy of ScienceJournal of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research 27 (2). 2010.
-
Interpretation in Science and in the ArtsIn George Levine (ed.), Realism and Representation, University of Wisconsin Press. 1993.
-
214From Vicious Circle to Infinite Regress, and Back AgainPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1992 6-29. 1992.The attempt to formulate a viable empiricist and non-foundationalist epistemology of science faces four problems here confronted. The first is an apparent loss of objectivity in science, in the conditions of use of models in applied science. The second derives from the theory-infection of scientific language, with an apparent loss of objective conditions of truth and reference. The third, often cited as objection to The Scientific Image, is the apparent theory-dependence of the distinction betwe…Read more
-
1Indifference : the symmetries of probabilityIn Antony Eagle (ed.), Philosophy of Probability: Contemporary Readings, Routledge. 2010.
San Francisco, California, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |