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49Getting Out of a Hole: Identity Individuality and Structuralism in Space-time PhysicsPhilosophica 67 (1). 2001.
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49Correspondence, Invariance and Heuristics: Essays in Honour of Heinz Post (edited book)Reidel. 1993.Fifteen essays are contained in this collection, all relating to Heinz Post ’ s article ‘ Correspondence, Invariance and Heuristics ’, also reprinted. In this article, written in the heyday of the post - positivist movement, Post aims to convince his fellowphilosophers of science to bring the issue of heuristics back to the philosophical stage. Examining a wealth of theories and models from the physics and chemistry of the last 300 years, Post extracts several strategies of theory construction o…Read more
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45A model theoretic approach to 'natural' reasoningInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 7 (2): 177-190. 1993.Abstract A general framework is proposed for accommodating the recent results of studies into ?natural? decision making. A crucial element of this framework is the notion of a ?partial structure?, recently introduced into the semantic approach to scientific theories. It is through the introduction of this element that connections can be made with certain problems regarding inconsistency and rationality in general
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44Semantic perspective on idealization in quantum mechanicsPoznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 63 51-74. 1998.
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44Da Costa and French explore the consequences of adopting a 'pragmatic' notion of truth in the philosophy of science. Their framework sheds new light on issues to do with belief, theory acceptance, and the realism-antirealism debate, as well as the nature of scientific models and their heuristic development.
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41The interdependence of structure, objects and dependenceSynthese 175 (S1): 89-109. 2010.According to ‘Ontic Structural Realism’ (OSR), physical objects—qua metaphysical entities—should be reconceptualised, or, more strongly, eliminated in favour of the relevant structures. In this paper I shall attempt to articulate the relationship between these putative objects and structures in terms of certain accounts of metaphysical dependence currently available. This will allow me to articulate the differences between the different forms of OSR and to argue in favour of the ‘eliminativist’ …Read more
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40Author’s response: Steven French: There are no such things as theories. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020, 288 pp, £55.00Metascience 30 (1): 23-29. 2021.
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40Clarity, charity and criticism, wit, wisdom and worldliness: Avoiding intellectual impositions (review)Metascience 9 (3): 347-498. 2000.
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39Theories, models and structures: Thirty years onPhilosophy of Science 67 (Supple). 2000.Thirty years after the conference that gave rise to The Structure of Scientific Theories, there is renewed interest in the nature of theories and models. However, certain crucial issues from thirty years ago are reprised in current discussions; specifically: whether the diversity of models in the science can be captured by some unitary account; and whether the temporal dimension of scientific practice can be represented by such an account. After reviewing recent developments we suggest that thes…Read more
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38FundamentalityIn Eleanor Knox & Alastair Wilson (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Physics, Routledge. pp. 679-688. 2022.The idea that there is some fundamental “level” or “ground” where our description of the world bottoms out has acquired the status of ‘the received view’ in metaphysics ; for a more recent critical defense, see Cameron, 2008). Typically this view is cashed out in terms of some set of ‘basic building blocks’ populating this level, which sits at the bottom of a hierarchy ordered according to some set of compositional principles. These fundamental building blocks are thus taken to have some form of…Read more
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37Science and Partial Truth: A Unitary Approach to Models and Scientific ReasoningOxford University Press USA. 2003.In the past thirty years, two fundamental issues have emerged in the philosophy of science. One concerns the appropriate attitude we should take towards scientific theories--whether we should regard them as true or merely empirically adequate, for example. The other concerns the nature of scientific theories and models and how these might best be represented. In this ambitious book, da Costa and French bring these two issues together by arguing that theories and models should be regarded as part…Read more
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36Recent developments in the scientific realism debate have resulted in a form of ‘exemplar driven’ realism that eschews general ‘recipes’ and instead focuses on the specific, ‘local’ reasons for adopting a realist stance in particular theoretical contexts. Here I suggest that such a move highlights even more sharply the need for the realist to incorporate a health dose of metaphysics in her position, particularly when it comes to the theories associated with modern physics. Turning to another set…Read more
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34The Aesthetics of Science: Beauty, Imagination and Understanding (edited book)Routledge. 2020.This volume builds on two recent developments in philosophy on the relationship between art and science: the notion of representation and the role of values in theory choice and the development of scientific theories. Its aim is to address questions regarding scientific creativity and imagination, the status of scientific performances--such as thought experiments and visual aids--and the role of aesthetic considerations in the context of discovery and justification of scientific theories. Severa…Read more
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34Book notice: D. Greenberger, K. Hentschel and F. Weinart : Compendium of quantum physics. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2009, xvi+901pp, £153 HB (review)Metascience 21 (1): 247-247. 2011.Book notice Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-1 DOI 10.1007/s11016-011-9591-8 Authors Steven French, Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT UK Journal Metascience Online ISSN 1467-9981 Print ISSN 0815-0796
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34Gerhard Schurz: Philosophy of Science—A Unified ApproachJournal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 46 (1): 241-243. 2015.Professor Schurz has written a book that is ambitious in both scope and aims. It begins with an introductory chapter on the historical development and general aims of the philosophy of science itself, moves on to issues associated with establishing a basis for a unified approach to science, with extensive consideration of the conceptual toolkit required, then takes us through chapters on laws and empirical testing, the empirical evaluation of theories more generally, including issues of realism …Read more
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32Applying Mathematics: Immersion, Inference, InterpretationOxford University Press. 2018.How is that when scientists need some piece of mathematics through which to frame their theory, it is there to hand? What has been called 'the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics' sets a challenge for philosophers. Some have responded to that challenge by arguing that mathematics is essentially anthropocentric in character, whereas others have pointed to the range of structures that mathematics offers. Otavio Bueno and Steven French offer a middle way, which focuses on the moves that have …Read more
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32Scribbling on the blank sheet: Eddington's structuralist conception of objectsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 34 (2): 227-259. 2003.
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31Been there, done that: Breaking free from KuhnSocial Epistemology 17 (2 & 3). 2003.This Article does not have an abstract
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28Emily R. Grosholz * Representation and Productive Ambiguity in Mathematics and the SciencesBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 62 (4): 895-898. 2011.
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27Quasi-structural RealismIn Jonas R. B. Arenhart & Raoni W. Arroyo (eds.), Non-Reflexive Logics, Non-Individuals, and the Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics: Essays in Honour of the Philosophy of Décio Krause, Springer Verlag. pp. 29-43. 2023.Devising an appropriate formal framework for structural realism has long been an issue in the development of this position. Décio Krause has suggested that quasi-set theory might offer such a framework and here I explore that possibility in the context of so-called ‘moderate’ and ‘radical’ forms of Ontic Structural Realism (OSR). However, although the central claims of the former can indeed be captured by quasi-set theory, I argue that these claims cannot bear the metaphysical weight placed upon…Read more
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26The Neglect of ExperimentNoûs 24 (4): 631-634. 1990.What role have experiments played, and should they play, in physics? How does one come to believe rationally in experimental results? The Neglect of Experiment attempts to provide answers to both of these questions. Professor Franklin's approach combines the detailed study of four episodes in the history of twentieth century physics with an examination of some of the philosophical issues involved. The episodes are the discovery of parity nonconservation in the 1950s; the nondiscovery of parity n…Read more
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25Review of Emiliano Trizio’s Philosophy’s Nature: Husserl’s Phenomenology, Natural Science, and Metaphysics (review)Husserl Studies 39 (3): 345-350. 2023.
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