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Game theoryIn Sahotra Sarkar & Jessica Pfeifer (eds.), The Philosophy of Science: An Encyclopedia, Routledge. 2005.
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36The Philosophy of Philip Kitcher (edited book)Oxford University Press USA. 2016.The Philosophy of Philip Kitcher contains eleven chapters on the work of noted philosopher Philip Kitcher, whose work is known for its broad range and insightfulness. Topics covered include philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, philosophy of mathematics, ethics, epistemology, and philosophy of religion. Each of the chapters is followed by a reply from Kitcher himself. This first significant edited volume devoted to examining Kitcher's work is an essential reference for anyone interested …Read more
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5Game theoryIn Sahotra Sarkar & Jessica Pfeifer (eds.), The Philosophy of Science: An Encyclopedia, Routledge. 2005.
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187Studying Animal Languages without Translation: An Insight from Ants. By Zhanna Reznikova (review)Quarterly Review of Biology 93 38. 2018.
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59The Philosophy of Science: An Encyclopedia (edited book)Routledge. 2005.The philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy that examines the profound philosophical questions that arise from scientific research and theories. A sub-discipline of philosophy that emerged in the twentieth century, the philosophy of science is largely a product of the British and Austrian schools of thought and traditions. The first in-depth reference in the field that combines scientific knowledge with philosophical inquiry, The Philosophy of Science: An Encyclopedia is a two-volume s…Read more
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Playing Dice with the Universe: A Combinatorial Account of LawsDissertation, University of California, San Diego. 1999.Contemporary accounts of laws of nature face two recurrent problems. On the one hand, some accounts capture what is distinctive about laws---their nomic necessity and their support of counterfactuals. However, they do this at the cost of making obscure how we are ever able to justify a claim that something is a law. On the other hand, there are accounts that seem to give us epistemic access to laws, but these appear unable to capture their distinctive characteristics. ;I resolve this dilemma by …Read more
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The philosophy of science: An introductionIn Sahotra Sarkar & Jessica Pfeifer (eds.), The Philosophy of Science: An Encyclopedia, Routledge. 2005.
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30Review of Elliott Sober, Evidence and Evolution: The Logic Behind the Science (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2009 (7). 2009.
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80The Use of Information Theory in Biology: Lessons from Social InsectsBiological Theory 1 (3): 317-330. 2006.In this paper, I discuss how information theory has been used in the study of animal communication, as well as how these uses are justified. Biologists justify their use of Shannon’s information measures by the work they do in allowing for comparisons between different organisms and because they measure a quantity that is purported to be important for natural selection. I argue that there are problems with both sorts of justification. To make these difficulties clear, I focus on the use of Shann…Read more
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39Why Selection and Drift Might Be DistinctPhilosophy of Science 72 (5): 1135-1145. 2005.In this paper, it is argued that selection and drift might be distinct. This contradicts recent arguments by Brandon (forthcoming) and Matthen and Ariew (2002) that such a distinction “violates sound probabilistic thinking” (Matthen and Ariew 2002, 62). While their arguments might be valid under certain assumptions, they overlook a possible way to make sense of the distinction. Whether this distinction makes sense, I argue, depends on the source of probabilities in natural selection. In particul…Read more
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62Mill and Lewis on laws, experimentation, and systematizationStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 43 (1): 172-181. 2012.Mill appears to be committed to two incompatible accounts of laws. While he seems to defend a Humean account of laws similar to Ramsey’s and Lewis’s, he also appears to rely on modal notions to distinguish lawful relations from accidental regularities. This paper will show that Mill’s two accounts of laws are in fact equivalent. This equivalence results from a proper understanding of the necessity involved in laws and a proper understanding of systematization. This equivalence reveals the true s…Read more
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Nominalism and inductive generalizationsIn P. D. Magnus & Jacob Busch (eds.), New waves in philosophy of science, Palgrave-macmillan. 2009.
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7The Philosophy of Science 2-Volume Set: An Encyclopedia (edited book)Routledge. 2005.The first in-depth reference in the field that combines scientific knowledge with philosophical inquiry, _The Philosophy of Science: An Encyclopedia_ is a two-volume set that brings together an international team of leading scholars to provide over 130 entries on the essential concepts in the philosophy of science. _The areas covered include:_ biology chemistry epistemology and metaphysics physics psychology and mind the social sciences key figures in the combined studies of science and philosop…Read more
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