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24Review of C. Mantzavinos, Philosophy of the Social Sciences: Philosophical Theory and Scientific Practice (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2010 (6). 2010.
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13Historical 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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14Renouvier 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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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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34The 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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17Changing conceptions of the philosophy of scienceInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 15 (2). 2001.(2001). Changing conceptions of the philosophy of science. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science: Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 127-131. doi: 10.1080/02698590120058997
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20Sociology and Hacking's TrousersPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1992. 1992.For Hacking, the word "real", like the sexist expression "wear the trousers", takes its meaning from its negative uses. In this essay, I criticize Hacking's reasons for believing that the objects of study of the social sciences are not real. First I argue that the realism issue in the social sciences concerns not unobservable entities but systems of social classification. I then argue that Hacking's social science nominalism derives from his considering social groups in isolation from the entire…Read more
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34Renouvier and the method of hypothesisStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 38 (1): 132-148. 2007.Renouvier was among the first philosophers in France to break with the nineteenth-century inductivist tradition and defend the use of hypotheses in science. Earlier in the century, the humanistically-educated eclectic spiritualist philosophers who dominated French academic life had followed Reid in proscribing the use of hypotheses. Renouvier, who was educated in the sciences, took up the Comtean positivist alternative and developed it further. He began by defending hypotheses that anticipate la…Read more
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66Book 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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13Fact and Method: Explanation, Confirmation, and Reality in the Natural and Social Sciences. Richard W. MillerIsis 79 (3): 492-493. 1988.
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19Claude Blanckaert. La nature de la société: Organicisme et sciences sociales au XIXe siècle. 158 pp., bibl., index. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2004. €14 (review)Isis 97 (3): 563-564. 2006.
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25Social science, epistemology, and the problem of relativism: Reply to Meja and StehrSocial Epistemology 2 (3). 1988.
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13Review 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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41This Article does not have an abstract
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54Whither social epistemology? A reply to FullerPhilosophy of the Social Sciences 21 (2): 196-202. 1991.
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43Evolutionary and Neuroscience Approaches to the Study of CognitionPhilosophy of Science 72 (5): 675-686. 2005.There is a lack of connection between the cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary approaches to the study of the mind, in philosophy as well as the sciences. For instance, although Millikan may display a thorough understanding of evolutionary theory in her arguments for the adaptive value of substance concepts, she gives scant attention to what could be the neural substrates of these concepts. Neuroscience research calls into question her assumption that substance concepts play a role in practic…Read more
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14The 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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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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24Reasons, causes, and the 'strong programme' in the sociology of knowledgePhilosophy of the Social Sciences 15 (2): 189-196. 1985.
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60Book 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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221Functionalism and the meaning of social factsPhilosophy of Science 66 (3): 323. 1999.This paper defends a social functionalist interpretation, modeled on psychological functionalism, of the meanings of social facts. Social functionalism provides a better explanation of the possibility of interpreting other cultures than approaches that identify the meanings of social facts with either mental states or behavior. I support this claim through a functionalist reinterpretation of sociological accounts of the categories that identify them with their collective representations. Taking …Read more
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23Although standpoint theorists tend to characterize a scientist’s social situation in terms of her position in a hierarchy of power within the larger society, her social situation could also be characterized in terms of the degree to which she is integrated into the scientific community. The latter concept of social location may prove helpful in explaining a scientist’s potential for contributing to the growth of knowledge. It may also provide an independent measure of marginalization that makes …Read more
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History of Western Philosophy |
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |
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History of Western Philosophy |
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |