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16Cournot and Renouvier on Scientific RevolutionsJournal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 54 (1): 7-17. 2023.Historians of philosophy have hitherto either given scant attention to Cournot and Renouvier’s views on scientific revolution, tried to read Kuhn’s concept of scientific revolution back into their works, or did not fully appreciate the extent to which these philosophers were reflecting on the works of their predecessors as well as on developments in mathematics and the sciences. Cournot’s views on cumulative development through revolution resemble Comte’s more than Kuhn’s, and his notion of prog…Read more
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15Book Review: What’s So Social about Social Knowledge? (review)Philosophy of the Social Sciences 35 (1): 98-125. 2005.Although Longino and Solomon are interested in what social conditions will produce better science, neither philosopher has provided a sufficient analysis of the social character of science. For instance, neither considers the social character of discovery as well as that of justification, or that an individual scientist’s social status and social relations may be important for understanding her role in both processes. The contributors to Schmitt’s volume are interested in whether the terms that …Read more
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13Political Philosophy of Science in Nineteenth-Century France: From Comte’s Positivism to Renouvier’s ConventionalismIn Marcus P. Adams, Zvi Biener, Uljana Feest & Jacqueline Anne Sullivan (eds.), Eppur Si Muove: Doing History and Philosophy of Science with Peter Machamer: A Collection of Essays in Honor of Peter Machamer, Springer. 2017.Recent controversy over whether the Vienna Circle can provide a model for today’s political turn in the philosophy of science indicates the need to clarify just what is meant by the term political philosophy of science. This paper finds fourteen different meanings of the term, including both descriptive and normative usages, having to do with the roles of political values in the sciences, the political consequences and significance of the sciences and scientific modes of thought, and political p…Read more
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13The Empirical Character of Methodological RulesPhilosophy of Science 63 (5). 1996.Critics of Laudan's normative naturalism have questioned whether methodological rules can be regarded as empirical hypotheses about relations between means and ends. Drawing on Laudan's defense that rules of method are contingent on assumptions about the world, I argue that even if such rules can be shown to be analytic in principle, in practice the warrant for such rules will be empirical. Laudan's naturalism, however, acquires normative force only by construing both methods and epistemic goals…Read more
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12Historical Laws and the History and Philosophy of SciencePhilosophie Et Culture: Actes du XVIIe Congrès Mondial de Philosophie 3 647-651. 1988.
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12Renouvier had argued that Comte's philosophy of science yielded very conservative normative advice regarding the sciences. Fedi, Becquemont, Logue, and Mouy have suggested the same charge could be leveled at Renouvier regarding evolutionary theory, non-Euclidean geometry, and set theory. This paper shows Renouvier's views were not unreasonable given what was known at the time. Further, Renouvier had a deeper appreciation than Comte of human fallibility and did not proscribe any area of research,…Read more
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12Review of Lawrence E. Cahoone, Cultural Revolutions: Reason Versus Culture in Philosophy, Politics, and Jihad (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2005 (8). 2005.
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10No Title available: ReviewsEconomics and Philosophy 11 (1): 203-208. 1995.The Critical Mass in Collective Action: A Micro-Social Theory, Marwell Gerald and Oliver PamelaOn Social Facts, Gilbert Margaret
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10Fact and Method: Explanation, Confirmation, and Reality in the Natural and Social Sciences. Richard W. MillerIsis 79 (3): 492-493. 1988.
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9The Concept of Analysis in Comte’s Philosophy of MathematicsPhilosophy Research Archives 8 205-222. 1982.This paper traces August Comte’s attempts to get clear about the concept of mathematical analysis at various stages in his intellectual development. Comte was especially concerned with distinguishing a method of analysis for the resolution of complex prolems from analysis in the sense of a method of drawing inferences. Geometrical analysis serves as his model for the former. In his attempt to get clear about this notion, he discovers an historical succession of different methods all of which may…Read more
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9Durkheim's Philosophy of Science and the Sociology of Knowledge: Creating an Intellectual NicheUniversity of Chicago Press. 1994.In this demonstration of the link between philosophy of science and scientific practice, Warren Schmaus argues that Durkheim's philosophy is crucial to his sociology. Through a reinterpretation of the relation between Durkheim's major philosophical and sociological works, Schmaus argues that Durkheim's sociology is more than a collection of general observations about society—it reflects a richly constructed theory of the meanings and causes of social life. Schmaus shows how Durkheim sought to ma…Read more
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7La nature de la société: Organicisme et sciences sociales au XIXe siècle (review)Isis 97 563-564. 2006.
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7Book Reviews : Helen E. Longino, Science as Social Knowledge: Values and Objectivity in Scientific Inquiry. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1990. Pp. xii, 262, $35.00 (cloth), $13.95 (paper (review)Philosophy of the Social Sciences 23 (4): 562-566. 1993.
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6Rethinking Durkheim and His TraditionCambridge University Press. 2004.This book offers a reassessment of the work of Emile Durkheim in the context of a French philosophical tradition that had seriously misinterpreted Kant by interpreting his theory of the categories as psychological faculties. Durkheim's sociological theory of the categories, as revealed by Warren Schmaus, is an attempt to provide an alternative way of understanding Kant. For Durkheim the categories are necessary conditions for human society. The concepts of causality, space and time underpin the …Read more
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4Liberty and the pursuit of knowledge: Charles Renouvier's political philosophy of scienceUniversity of Pittsburgh Press. 2018.Renouvier's place in nineteenth-century French thought -- Renouvier's critique of Comtean positivism -- Renouvier and mathematics -- Renouvier on evolution -- Kant, free will, and the social contract -- Hypothesis and convention in Renouvier's philosophy of science.
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4Special Issue : nineteenth-century french philosophy of science : positivism and its continuationsHopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 11 (2): 421-427. 2021.International audience.
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4Book Reviews : Steve Fuller, Social Epistemology. Indiana University Press, Bloomington/ Indianapolis, 1988. Pp. xv, 316, US$22.00 (review)Philosophy of the Social Sciences 21 (1): 121-125. 1991.
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Areas of Specialization
History of Western Philosophy |
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |
Areas of Interest
History of Western Philosophy |
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |