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305Versions of DeterminismMεtascience: Scientific General Discourse 2 250-260. 2022.Karl Popper’s “Indeterminism in Quantum Physics and in Classical Physics” suffers unjust neglect. He judged determinism false: the future is open. In principle, replacing Laplace's variant of predetermination with predictable predetermination renders “scientific” determinism scientific and so refutable. Popper claimed that he had refuted it. Now a metaphysical system may have an extension—in the mathematical sense—that may render it explanatory and testable. If it exists, then it is not unique b…Read more
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178Variantes du déterminismeMεtascience: Discours Général Scientifique 2 293-304. 2022.L’article de Karl Popper « Indeterminism in Quantum Physics and in Classical Physics » est tombé injustement dans l’oubli. Popper jugeait le déterminisme faux : l’avenir est ouvert. En principe, remplacer la variante de Laplace de la pré-détermination par une prédétermination prévisible permet de rendre scienti-fique, donc réfutable, le déterminisme « scientifique ». Popper a affirmé qu’il l’avait réfuté. Maintenant, un système métaphysique peut avoir une extension – au sens mathématique – qui l…Read more
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171Koyré on the history of cosmology (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 9 (35): 234-245. 1958.
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155Book Review: Tacit and Explicit KnowledgeCollinsHarryTacit and Explicit Knowledge. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2010. xi + 182 pp. ISBN 978-0-226-11308-7 (review)Philosophy of the Social Sciences 43 (2): 275-279. 2013.
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151Comparability and incommensurabilitySocial Epistemology 17 (2 & 3). 2003.This Article does not have an abstract
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135Blame not the laws of natureFoundations of Science 1 (1): 131-154. 1995.1. Lies, Error and Confusion 2. Lies 3. The Demarcation of Science: Historical 4. The Demarcation of Science: Recent 5. Observed Regularities and Laws of Nature
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127Book Review: Paul Feyerabend: ein Philosoph aus Wien, Edited by F. Stadler and KR Fischer (review)Philosophy of the Social Sciences. forthcoming.
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125ANTHROPOMORPHISM is an inveterate tendency to project human qualities into natural phenomena—consciously or not. The standard and most important variant of anthropomorphism is animism which sees a soul in everything in nature. Before entering into the role of anthropomorphism in the history of science, let us consider a few important and usually neglected logical aspects of the idea.
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124Current Philosophy of SciencePhilosophy of the Social Sciences 41 (2): 278-294. 2011.This Companion to the philosophy of science reflects fairly well the gloomy state of affairs in this subfield at its best—concerns, problems, prejudices, and all. The field is still stuck with the problem of justification of science, refusing to admit that there is neither need nor possibility to justify science and forbid dissent from it
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113Epistemology as an aid to science: Comments on dr Buchdahl's paperBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 10 (38): 135-146. 1959.
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106Causality and MedicineJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 1 (4): 301-317. 1976.The philosophers of science who viewed causality as a metaphysical headache were right. Yet when they concluded that it is of no scientific import and of less practical import, they were clearly in error. I say clearly because they thereby recommended that we replace cause by mere empirical correlation, which obviously will not do. Here is an obvious example which proves them in error without even touching upon the question of what science is.
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92The word "brain-washing", translated from Chinese communist jargon, is a very strong metaphor, first popularized by Robert Jay Lifto n. It vividly describes one person interfering with the personality make-up of another, removing the other's ideology and replacing it, and similarly tampering with the other's tastes, pool of information to rely upon and whatever else goes into the make-up of the other's personality. Clearly, in some sense or another everyone interferes with the personality of peo…Read more
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85We Socratic Philosophers Know that We Know NothingPhilosophy of the Social Sciences 42 (1): 146-151. 2012.This volume is as near an authoritative version of analytic philosophy as can be found in the market these days
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84Review: Koyré on the History of Cosmology (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 9 (35). 1958.
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73The variety of languages in the world is considered a curse by some, who view the phenomenon as a Tower of Babel. Others consider it the most characteristic quality of human language as opposed to animal languages, which are supposedly species specific. The variety is viewed as a symptom of human caprice, arbitrariness, or dependence on mere historical accident by some; and as a symptom of human freedom and of the creative aspect of language by others. And, of course, the human limitation caused…Read more
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70Mario Bunge: A Centenary Festschrift (edited book)Springer Verlag. 2019.This volume has 41 chapters written to honor the 100th birthday of Mario Bunge. It celebrates the work of this influential Argentine/Canadian physicist and philosopher. Contributions show the value of Bunge’s science-informed philosophy and his systematic approach to philosophical problems. The chapters explore the exceptionally wide spectrum of Bunge’s contributions to: metaphysics, methodology and philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of physics, philosophy of psychology…Read more
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63Methodological Individualism and Institutional Individualism: A Discussion with Joseph AgassiIn Nathalie Bulle & Francesco Di Iorio (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Methodological Individualism: Volume II, Springer Verlag. pp. 617-631. 2023.This chapter takes the form of a discussion between the editors of this volume and Joseph Agassi, regarding the relationship between methodological individualism and institutional individualism. The focus is on Agassi’s interpretation of traditional methodological individualism in terms of psychologism; the role of institutions and structural factors in social explanation; Popper’s theory of World 3; the application of Weber’s interpretative approach—Verstehen—to typical ways of thinking and act…Read more
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62Between science and technologyPhilosophy of Science 47 (1): 82-99. 1980.Basic research or fundamental research is distinct from both pure and applied research, in that it is pure research with expected useful results. The existence of basic or fundamental research is problematic, at least for both inductivists and instrumentalists, but also for Popper. Assuming scientific research to be the search for explanatory conjectures and for refutations, and assuming technology to be the search of conjectures and some corroborations, we can easily place basic or fundamental …Read more
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60The idea of verisimilitude is implicit in the writings of Albert Einstein ever since 1905, when he declared the distribution of field energy according to Maxwell's theory an approximation to that according to quantum-radiation theory, and Newtonian kinetic energy an approximation to his relativistic mass-energy. All his life Einstein presented new ideas as yielding older established ones as special cases and first approximations. The news has reached the philosophical community via the writings …Read more
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56On the definition of lifeJournal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 25 (1). 1994.Schrödinger's definition of life needs a slight modification to absorb the criticism of it. It is the comparison of the entropy level of a system before and after a process which makes one view it as living: we consider the stability of the deviation from the probable a sign of life. This explains why we do not hesitate to consider as remnants of living systems skeletons and fossils anywhere and physical culture on any archeological site
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55A Hegelian view of complementarity (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 9 (33): 57-63. 1958.
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50A Note on Smith's Term "Naturalism"Hume Studies 12 (1): 92-96. 1986.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:92 A NOTE ON SMITH'S TERM "NATURALISM" The reader of contemporary Hume literature may feel exasperated when reading recent authors. A conspicuous example is A.J. Ayer (Hume, 1982; see index, Art, Natural beliefs), who declares they endorse Kemp Smith's view of Hume's "naturalism" without sufficiently clarifying what they — or Smith — might exactly mean by this term. Charles W. Hendel, in the 1963 edition of his 1924 Studies in the Ph…Read more
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46Abstract and Introduction. This essay is an attempt to dispense with the negative aspects of Romanticism and examine whatever positive it has to offer--in the light of ideas scattered through diverse writings of Ernest Gellner
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