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15Travelling in New DirectionsIn Steven French & Juha Saatsi (eds.), Continuum Companion to the Philosophy of Science, Continuum. pp. 337. 2011.This chapter discusses some emerging trends, new directions, and outstanding issues in philosophy of science. The first section places contemporary philosophy of science in context by considering its relationship to analytic philosophy at large, to the history of science, and to science itself. The subsequent sections will then take a look at a selection of interesting trends emerging from current research, and some important issues calling for further work. The presentation is inevitably colour…Read more
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12Partial Structures and the Logic of Azande DOI: 10.5007/1808-1711.2011v15n1p77Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology 15 (1): 77-105. 2011.In Science and Partial Truth it was argued that inconsistencies in scientific reasoning may be accommodated by the combination of partial structures and quasi-truth, together with a notion of ‘representational belief’. In this paper I shall examine whether this framework can be extended to the reasonings and beliefs of other cultures, focusing in particular on the witchcraft beliefs of Azande. I shall argue that these beliefs are akin to the theoretical beliefs of Western science but that the mo…Read more
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12Identity conditions, idealisations and isomorphisms: a defence of the Semantic ApproachSynthese 198 (Suppl 24): 5897-5917. 2017.In this paper I begin with a recent challenge to the Semantic Approach and identify an underlying assumption, namely that identity conditions for theories should be provided. Drawing on previous work, I suggest that this demand should be resisted and that the Semantic Approach should be seen as a philosophical device that we may use to represent certain features of scientific practice. Focussing on the partial structures variant of that approach, I then consider a further challenge that arises f…Read more
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12Evolutionary Biology: Causes, Consequences and Controversies (review)Metascience 16 (3): 437-445. 2007.
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10W. E. HERFEL, W. KRAJEWSKI,, I. NIINILUOTO, AND R. WÓJCICKI (Eds.), Theories and Models in Scientific Processes. Poznań Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities, Vol. 44, Amsterdam/Atlanta, Rodopi, 1995British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 47 (4): 658-662. 1996.
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10Understanding Scientific Theories: An Assessment of Developments, 1969–1998 (review)Philosophy of Science 67 (3). 2000.The positivistic Received View construed scientific theories syntactically as axiomatic calculi where theoretical terms were given a partial semantic interpretation via correspondence rules connecting them to observation statements. This paper assesses what, with hindsight, seem the most important defects in the Received View; surveys the main proposed successor analyses to the Received View—various Semantic Conception versions and the Structuralist Analysis; evaluates how well they avoid those …Read more
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9Scientific Realism and the Quantum (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2020.Quantum theory explains a hugely diverse array of phenomena in the history of science. But how can the world be the way quantum theory says it is? Fifteen expert scholars consider what the world is like according to quantum physics in this volume and offer illuminating new perspectives on fundamental debates that span physics and philosophy.
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9The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science | Vol 73, No 3British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 71 (4): 1155-1156. 2020.
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8Representation and Realism: On Being a Structuralist All the Way (Up and) DownIn Claus Beisbart & Michael Frauchiger (eds.), Scientific Theories and Philosophical Stances: Themes from van Fraassen, De Gruyter. pp. 87-108. 2024.
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8Review of BAS VAN FRAASSEN: Quantum Mechanics: An Empiricist Approach (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 46 (3): 436-439. 1995.
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7Overstated or Understated: The Role of Regimes in Creating and Addressing Environmental Problems (review)Metascience 16 (3): 515-517. 2007.
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7Review of Martin H. Krieger: Constitutions of Matter: Mathematically Modeling the Most Everyday of Physical Phenomena (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 49 (2): 355-358. 1998.
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6The Bloomsbury companion to the philosophy of science (edited book)Bloomsbury Academic. 2014.The Bloomsbury Companion to the Philosophy of Science presents a practical and up-to-date research resource to the philosophy of science. Addressing fundamental questions asked by discipline - areas that have continued to attract interest historically, as well as recently-emerging areas of research - this volume provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the philosophy of science. Specially-commissioned essays from an international team of experts reveal where important work continues t…Read more
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Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |