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240Constructive empiricism and modal metaphysics: A reply to Monton and Van FraassenBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 55 (4): 755-765. 2004., I argued that Bas van Fraassen's constructive empiricism was undermined in various ways by his antirealism about modality. Here I offer some comments and responses to the reply to my arguments by Bradley Monton and van Fraassen [2003]. In particular, after making some minor points, I argue that Monton and van Fraassen have not done enough to show that the context dependence of counterfactuals renders their truth conditions non-objective, and I also argue that adopting modal realism does after …Read more
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Unification and explanation in science A review of Margaret Morrison's Unifying Scientific Theories: Physical Concepts and Mathematical StructuresJournal of Economic Methodology 10 (1): 91-96. 2003.
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168Superconductivity and structures: revisiting the London accountStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 28 (3): 363-393. 1997.Cartwright and her collaborators have elaborated a provocative view of science which emphasises the independence from theory &unknown;in methods and aims&unknown; of phenomenological model building. This thesis has been supported in a recent paper by an analysis of the London and London model of superconductivity. In the present work we begin with a critique of Cartwright's account of the relationship between theoretical and phenomenological models before elaborating an alternative picture withi…Read more
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52Stathis Psillos, Causation and Explanation. Chesham: Acumen, 2002 (review)Metascience 12 (3): 431-434. 2003.
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52Arguing about science (edited book)Routledge. 2013.Arguing About Science is an outstanding, engaging introduction to the essential topics in philosophy of science, edited by two leading experts in the field. This exciting and innovative anthology contains a selection of classic and contemporary readings that examine a broad range of issues, from classic problems such as scientific reasoning; causation; and scientific realism, to more recent topics such as science and race; forensic science; and the scientific status of medicine. The editors brin…Read more
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166Review of Anjan Chakravartty, A Metaphysics for Scientific Realism: Knowing the Unobservable (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2009 (6). 2009.Review of Anjan Chakravartty: 'A Metaphysics for Scientific Realism: Knowing the Unobservable', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
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169I—James Ladyman: On the Identity and Diversity of Objects in a StructureAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 81 (1): 23-43. 2007.The identity and diversity of individual objects may be grounded or ungrounded, and intrinsic or contextual. Intrinsic individuation can be grounded in haecceities, or absolute discernibility. Contextual individuation can be grounded in relations, but this is compatible with absolute, relative or weak discernibility. Contextual individuation is compatible with the denial of haecceitism, and this is more harmonious with science. Structuralism implies contextual individuation. In mathematics conte…Read more
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129Wouldn’t it be Lovely: Explanation and Scientific Realism (review)Metascience 14 (3): 331-361. 2005.
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15The epistemology of constructive empiricismIn Bradley John Monton (ed.), Images of empiricism: essays on science and stances, with a reply from Bas C. van Fraassen, Oxford University Press. 2007.
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379In defence of ontic structural realismIn Alisa Bokulich & Peter Bokulich (eds.), Scientific Structuralism, Springer Science+business Media. pp. 25-42. 2011.
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375Science, metaphysics and methodPhilosophical Studies 160 (1): 31-51. 2012.While there are many examples of metaphysical theorising being heuristically and intellectually important in the progress of scientific knowledge, many people wonder how metaphysics not closely informed and inspired by empirical science could lead to rival or even supplementary knowledge about the world. This paper assesses the merits of a popular defence of the a priori methodology of metaphysics that goes as follows. The first task of the metaphysician, like the scientist, is to construct a hy…Read more
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