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51Philosophy of Science: Between the Natural Sciences, the Social Sciences, and the Humanities (edited book)Springer Verlag. 2018.This broad and insightful book presents current scholarship in important subfields of philosophy of science and addresses an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary readership. It groups carefully selected contributions into the four fields of I) philosophy of physics, II) philosophy of life sciences, III) philosophy of social sciences and values in science, and IV) philosophy of mathematics and formal modeling. Readers will discover research papers by Paul Hoyningen-Huene, Keizo Matsubara, Kian…Read more
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12Distribuierte epistemische UngerechtigkeitIn Sebastian Schleidgen, Orsolya Friedrich & Andreas Wolkenstein (eds.), Bedeutung und Implikationen epistemischer Ungerechtigkeit, Tectum – Ein Verlag in Der Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft. pp. 107-130. 2023.
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181. Preface Preface (pp. i-ii)Philosophy of Science 72 (5): 687-698. 2005.The study of similarity is fundamental to biological inquiry. Many homology concepts have been formulated that function successfully to explain similarity in their native domains, but fail to provide an overarching account applicable to variably interconnected and independent areas of biological research despite the monistic standpoint from which they originate. The use of multiple, explicitly articulated homology concepts, applicable at different levels of the biological hierarchy, allows a mor…Read more
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Fake News, False Beliefs, and the Fallible Art of Knowledge MaintenanceIn Sven Bernecker, Amy K. Flowerree & Thomas Grundmann (eds.), The Epistemology of Fake News, Oxford University Press. 2021.
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38Exploratory Models and Exploratory Modeling in Science: IntroductionPerspectives on Science 29 (4): 355-358. 2021.That science is more than the unilinear application of general theories to specific empirical circumstances is, one hopes, no longer something that is controversial or requires detailed argument. To be sure, there were times when devising universally applicable theories was seen as the most worthy task of science, with less lofty activities such as experimentation and scientific modeling being relegated to the underbelly of “proper science.” Arguing for a pluralistic recognition of the diversity…Read more
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13Assessing the Credibility of Conceptual ModelsIn Claus Beisbart & Nicole J. Saam (eds.), Computer Simulation Validation: Fundamental Concepts, Methodological Frameworks, and Philosophical Perspectives, Springer Verlag. pp. 249-269. 2019.Whether or not the results of a computer simulation are credible depends to a large extent on the credibilityCredibility of the underlying conceptual model. If a model has been developed explicitly with the goal of running a computer simulation in mind, the two types of credibilityCredibility may seem deeply intertwined. Yet, often enough, conceptual modelsConceptual model predate the subsequent development of simulation techniques, or were first developed outside the context of computer simulat…Read more
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9Richard Foley: Intellectual Trust in Oneself and Others. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy) 2001, ISBN 0521793084; £ 42.50, EUR 53,50 (Hardback); 192 pages (review)History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 8 (1): 221-227. 2005.
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5Tamás Demeter (ed.): Essays on Wittgenstein and Austrian Philosophy. Studien zur Österreichischen Philosophie, Vol. 38. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi 2004, ISBN 90-420-0888-5; US$ 88.00, EUR 70.00 (paperback); 320 pages (review)History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 10 (1): 206-211. 2007.
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24Hume on Testimony RevisitedHistory of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 13 (1): 60-75. 2010.Among contemporary epistemologists of testimony, David Hume is standardly regarded as a ‘global reductionist’, where global reductionism requires the hearer to have sufficient first-hand knowledge of the facts in order to individually ascertain the reliability of the testimony in question. In the present paper, I argue that, by construing Hume’s reductionism in too individualistic a fashion, the received view of Hume on testimony is inaccurate at best, and misleading at worst. Overall, Hume is m…Read more
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4Eric Winsberg: Philosophy and Climate Science: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2018, 270 pp, $29.99 (Paperback), ISBN: 9781316646922 (review)Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 51 (1): 199-202. 2020.
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11Beyond The ‘Null Setting’Epistemology and Philosophy of Science 56 (2): 60-76. 2019.Epistemologists of testimony have tended to construct highly stylized (so-called “null setting”) examples in support of their respective philosophical positions, the paradigmatic case being the casual request for directions from a random stranger. The present paper analyzes the use of such examples in the early controversy between reductionists and anti-reductionists about testimonial justification. The controversy concerned, on the one hand, the source of whatever epistemic justification our te…Read more
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1Probing Possibilities: Toy Models, Minimal Models, and Exploratory ModelsIn Matthieu Fontaine, Cristina Barés-Gómez, Francisco Salguero-Lamillar, Lorenzo Magnani & Ángel Nepomuceno-Fernández (eds.), Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology: Inferential Models for Logic, Language, Cognition and Computation, Springer Verlag. 2019.According to one influential view, model-building in science is primarily a matter of simplifying theoretical descriptions of real-world target systems using abstraction and idealization. This view, however, does not adequately capture all types of models. Many contemporary models in the natural and social sciences – from physics to biology to economics – stand in a more tenuous relationship with real-world target systems and have a decidedly stipulative element, in that they create, by fiat, ‘m…Read more
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12Eric Winsberg: Philosophy and Climate ScienceJournal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 51 (1): 199-202. 2020.
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65Models in Search of Targets: Exploratory Modelling and the Case of Turing PatternsIn A. Christian, David Hommen, N. Retzlaff & Gerhard Schurz (eds.), Philosophy of Science. European Studies in Philosophy of Science, vol 9., Springer International Publishing. pp. 245-269. 2018.Traditional frameworks for evaluating scientific models have tended to downplay their exploratory function; instead they emphasize how models are inherently intended for specific phenomena and are to be judged by their ability to predict, reproduce, or explain empirical observations. By contrast, this paper argues that exploration should stand alongside explanation, prediction, and representation as a core function of scientific models. Thus, models often serve as starting points for future inqu…Read more
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110The Exploratory Role of Idealizations and Limiting Cases in ModelsStudia Metodologiczne. forthcoming.In this article we argue that idealizations and limiting cases in models play an exploratory role in science. Four senses of exploration are presented: exploration of the structure and representational capacities of theory; proof-of-principle demonstrations; potential explanations; and exploring the suitability of target systems. We illustrate our claims through three case studies, including the Aharonov-Bohm effect, the emergence of anyons and fractional quantum statistics, and the Hubbard mode…Read more
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876Fake News: A DefinitionInformal Logic 38 (1): 84-117. 2018.Despite being a new term, ‘fake news’ has evolved rapidly. This paper argues that it should be reserved for cases of deliberate presentation of false or misleading claims as news, where these are misleading by design. The phrase ‘by design’ here refers to systemic features of the design of the sources and channels by which fake news propagates and, thereby, manipulates the audience’s cognitive processes. This prospective definition is then tested: first, by contrasting fake news with other forms…Read more
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46Philosophical perspectives on synthetic biologyStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 44 (2): 119-121. 2013.Although the emerging field of synthetic biology looks back on barely a decade of development, the stakes are high. It is a multidisciplinary research field that aims at integrating the life sciences with engineering and the physical/chemical sciences. The common goal is to design and construct novel biological components, functions and systems in order to implement, in a controlled way, biological devices and production systems not necessarily found in nature. Among the many potential applicati…Read more
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34Kant and the Enlightenment's Contribution to Social EpistemologyEpisteme 7 (1): 79-99. 2010.The present paper argues for the relevance of Immanuel Kant and the German Enlightenment to contemporary social epistemology. Rather than distancing themselves from the alleged ‘individualism’ of Enlightenment philosophers, social epistemologists would be well-advised to look at the substantive discussion of social-epistemological questions in the works of Kant and other Enlightenment figures. After a brief rebuttal of the received view of the Enlightenment as an intrinsically individualist ente…Read more
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140How to Do Science with Models: A Philosophical PrimerSpringer. 2016.Taking scientific practice as its starting point, this book charts the complex territory of models used in science. It examines what scientific models are and what their function is. Reliance on models is pervasive in science, and scientists often need to construct models in order to explain or predict anything of interest at all. The diversity of kinds of models one finds in science – ranging from toy models and scale models to theoretical and mathematical models – has attracted attention not o…Read more
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26Testimony, Trust & Authority by Benjamin McMyler, 2011 New York, NY, Oxford University Press viii + 178 pp, $65.00 (hb) (review)Journal of Applied Philosophy 30 (1): 101-103. 2013.
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203Manipulative success and the unrealInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 17 (3): 245-263. 2003.In its original form due to Ian Hacking, entity realism postulates a criterion of manipulative success which replaces explanatory virtue as the criterion of justified scientific belief. The article analyses the foundations on which this postulate rests and identifies the conditions on which one can derive a form of entity realism from it. It then develops in detail an extensive class of counterexamples, drawing on the notion of quasi-particles in condensed matter physics. While the phenomena ass…Read more
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44Richard Foley: Intellectual trust in oneself and others (review)History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 8 220-227. 2005.In his previous books, The Theory of Epistemic Rationality (1987) and Working Without a Net (1993), Richard Foley presented a highly influential account of what it means for one’s beliefs and belief-forming practices to be rational. Developing a positive new account of epistemic rationality, however, has never been Foley’s sole concern. His project is metaepistemological in character as much as it is epistemological. Put crudely, questions such as ‘What makes some beliefs knowledge?’ are of equa…Read more
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402Symbol Systems as Collective Representational Resources: Mary Hesse, Nelson Goodman, and the Problem of Scientific RepresentationSocial Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 4 (6): 52-61. 2015.This short paper grew out of an observation—made in the course of a larger research project—of a surprising convergence between, on the one hand, certain themes in the work of Mary Hesse and Nelson Goodman in the 1950/60s and, on the other hand, recent work on the representational resources of science, in particular regarding model-based representation. The convergence between these more recent accounts of representation in science and the earlier proposals by Hesse and Goodman consists in the r…Read more
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85Between Rigor and Reality: Many-Body Models in Condensed Matter PhysicsIn Brigitte Falkenburg & Margaret Morrison (eds.), Why More Is Different: Philosophical Issues in Condensed Matter Physics and Complex Systems, Springer. pp. 201-226. 2015.The present paper focuses on a particular class of models intended to describe and explain the physical behaviour of systems that consist of a large number of interacting particles. Such many-body models are characterized by a specific Hamiltonian (energy operator) and are frequently employed in condensed matter physics in order to account for such phenomena as magnetism, superconductivity, and other phase transitions. Because of the dual role of many-body models as models of physical sys-tems (…Read more
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78Synthetic biology between technoscience and thing knowledgeStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 44 (2): 141-149. 2013.Synthetic biology presents a challenge to traditional accounts of biology: Whereas traditional biology emphasizes the evolvability, variability, and heterogeneity of living organisms, synthetic biology envisions a future of homogeneous, humanly engineered biological systems that may be combined in modular fashion. The present paper approaches this challenge from the perspective of the epistemology of technoscience. In particular, it is argued that synthetic-biological artifacts lend themselves t…Read more
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21Metaphysics meets the sciences: Guay, Alexandre, and Thomas Pradeu : Individuals across the sciences. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 424pp, $74.00 HB (review)Metascience 25 (3): 491-495. 2016.
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128Steps to an Ecology of Knowledge: Continuity and Change in the Genealogy of KnowledgeEpisteme 8 (1): 67-82. 2011.The present paper argues for a more complete integration between recent “genealogical” approaches to the problem of knowledge and evolutionary accounts of the development of human cognitive capacities and practices. A structural tension is pointed out between, on the one hand, the fact that theexplicandumof genealogical stories is a specifically human trait and, on the other hand, the tacit acknowledgment, shared by all contributors to the debate, that human beings have evolved from non-human be…Read more
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Technische Universität BerlinProfessor
Areas of Specialization
Epistemology |
General Philosophy of Science |
Areas of Interest
17th/18th Century Philosophy |