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19Philosophy of Science for ScientistsSpringer. 2007.Highly suitable as a textbook for undergraduate Science and Engineering courses. Relevant to students in the natural, social and human sciences. Advances understanding of what science is and how it developed.
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28Understanding causation in social-ecological systems (SES) is indispensable for promoting sustainable outcomes. However, the study of such causal relations is challenging because they are often complex and intertwined, and their analysis involves diverse disciplines. Although there is agreement that no single research approach (RA) can comprehensively explain SES phenomena, there is a lack of ability to deal with this diversity. Underlying this diversity and the challenge of dealing with it are …Read more
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98An Empiricist View on Laws, Quantities and Physical NecessityTheoria 85 (2): 69-101. 2019.In this article I argue for an empiricist view on laws. Some laws are fundamental in the sense that they are the result of inductive generalisations of observed regularities and at the same time in their formulation contain a new theoretical predicate. The inductive generalisations simul- taneously function as implicit definitions of these new predicates. Other laws are either explicit definitions or consequences of other previously established laws. I discuss the laws of classical mechanics, re…Read more
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37Empiricism and Philosophy of PhysicsSpringer Verlag. 2021.This book presents a thoroughly empiricist account of physics. By providing an overview of the development of empiricism from Ockham to van Fraassen the book lays the foundation for its own version of empiricism. Empiricism for the author consists of three ideas: nominalism, i.e. dismissing second order quantification as unnecessary, epistemological naturalism, and viewing classification of things in natural kinds as a human habit not in need for any justification. The book offers views on the r…Read more
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113Induction, Experimentation and Causation in the Social SciencesPhilosophies 6 (4): 105. 2021.Inductive thinking is a universal human habit; we generalise from our experiences the best we can. The induction problem is to identify which observed regularities provide reasonable justification for inductive conclusions. In the natural sciences, we can often use strict laws in making successful inferences about unobserved states of affairs. In the social sciences, by contrast, we have no strict laws, only regularities which most often are conditioned on ceteris paribus clauses. This makes it …Read more
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49Causation in Collisions - An Empiricist but Non-Humean AccountTheoria 73 (4): 317-333. 2007.Hume's regularity theory of causation was partly motivated by a criticism of Descartes' causal account of collisions. According to Descartes, bodies are things with extension, and since having extension does not entail any ability to cause changes of motion in other bodies, such changes must be explained by attributing a ‘causal power’ to bodies, logically independent of their extension. Hume's point is that we can't observe any such causal power and we should not use ideas about such unobserved…Read more
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50Gerhard Schurz Philosophy of Science. A Unified Approach. Routledge, New York and Abingdon, 2014. xix + 459 pp. isbn 978‐0‐415‐82936‐6 (review)Theoria 80 (4): 368-376. 2014.
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59Induction and Epistemological NaturalismPhilosophies 3 (4): 31. 2018.Epistemological naturalists reject the demand for a priori justification of empirical knowledge; no such thing is possible. Observation reports, being the foundation of empirical knowledge, are neither justified by other sentences, nor certain; but they may be agreed upon as starting points for inductive reasoning and they function as implicit definitions of predicates used. Making inductive generalisations from observations is a basic habit among humans. We do that without justification, but we…Read more
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47Spacetime in String Theory: A Conceptual ClarificationJournal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 49 (3): 333-353. 2018.In this paper, some conceptual issues are addressed in order to make sense of what string theory is supposed to tell us about spacetime. The dualities in string theory are used as a starting point for our argumentation. We explore the consequences of a standard view towards these dualities, namely that the dual descriptions represent the same physical situation. Given this view, one has to understand string theory in a manner such that what counts as physical spacetime is based only on the share…Read more
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34Logic, Ethics and All That Jazz: Essays in Honour of Jordan Howard Sobel (edited book)Dept. Of Philosophy, Uppsala University. 2009.
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82The Ontology of ElectromagnetismStudia Philosophica Estonica 10 (1): 25-44. 2017.Electromagnetism is usually understood as a theory describing how charged particles and eletromagnetic fields interact. In this paper I argue that a double ontology comprising both particles and fields is problematic. Either we should think of electromagnetism as a theory about charged particles directly interacting with each other, or as theory of fields whose local interactions are manifested as field quanta, called "particles." From a purely theoretical point of view the choice between a part…Read more
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24Natural NecessityIn Henrik Lagerlund, Sten Lindström & Rysiek Sliwinski (eds.), Modality Matters: Twenty-Five Essays in Honour of Krister Segerberg, Uppsala Philosophical Studies 53. pp. 221-229. 2006.
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43Presenting a realistic interpretation of quantum mechanics and, in particular, a realistic view of quantum waves, this book defends, with one exception, ...
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1Causation- A Synthesis of Three ApproachesIn Gordana Dodig Crnkovic & Susan Stuart (eds.), Computation, Information, Cognition: The Nexus and the Liminal.f, Cambridge Scholars Press. 2007.
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33The present paper contains a new attack on the measurement problem. The point of departure is a realist view according to which i) state functions in quantum theory describe physical states of affairs and not information states attributed to observers, and ii) in theses states, some observables are indeterminate and not merely unknown, i.e., value determinism is rejected. Furthermore, quantisation of interaction is accepted as an empirically established fact, independently of any interpretations…Read more
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PropensitiesIn Lars-Göran Johansson, Jan Österberg & Rysiek Śliwiński (eds.), Logic, Ethics and All That Jazz: Essays in Honour of Jordan Howard Sobel, Dept. of Philosophy, Uppsala University. 2009.
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4Reviews (review)Theoria 70 (1): 98-105. 2004.MARIA CARLA GALAVOTTI, PATRIK SUPPES and DOMENICO CONSTANTI:Stochastic Causality.
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34The Nature of Natural LawsIn Jan Faye, Paul Needham, Uwe Scheffler & Max Urchs (eds.), Nature's Principles, Springer. pp. 151--166. 2005.
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189String theory and general methodology: A mutual evaluationStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 42 (3): 199-210. 2011.String theory has been the dominating research field in theoretical physics during the last decades. Despite the considerable time elapse, no new testable predictions have been derived by string theorists and it is understandable that doubts have been voiced. Some people have argued that it is time to give up since testability is wanting. But the majority has not been convinced and they continue to believe that string theory is the right way to go. This situation is interesting for philosophy of…Read more