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36Modes, Media, and Formats of Scientific RepresentationErkenntnis: An International Journal of Analytic Philosophy. forthcoming.
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Coherence and Credibility in the Story-Model of Jurors’ Decision-Making: Does Mental Simulation Really Drive the Evaluation of the Evidence?In 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.
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13R. Frigg & M.C. Hunter, eds. 2010. Beyond Mimesis and Convention (Marion Vorms) (review)Theoria: Revista de Teoría, Historia y Fundamentos de la Ciencia 27 (3): 391-394. 2012.
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86About the warrants of computer-based empirical knowledgeSynthese 191 (15): 3595-3620. 2014.Computer simulations are widely used in current scientific practice, as a tool to obtain information about various phenomena. Scientists accordingly rely on the outputs of computer simulations to make statements about the empirical world. In that sense, simulations seem to enable scientists to acquire empirical knowledge. The aim of this paper is to assess whether computer simulations actually allow for the production of empirical knowledge, and how. It provides an epistemological analysis of pr…Read more
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4In this paper, I construe scientific understanding not only as understanding the phenomena by means of some theoretical material (theory, law or model), but more fundamentally as understanding the theoretical material itself that is supposed to explain the phenomena. De Regt and Dieks (2005) emphasise the contextual aspects of the intelligibility of theories, showing that it depends on their ―virtues‖, on the historical standards of intelligibility, and on the particular ―skills‖of their users. …Read more
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2I analyse the double function of models (representing the phenomena, and being a tool for calculating and predicting them) from a cognitive point of view. Taking the same approach as Ronald Giere, I nevertheless argue that he is to much committed to an abstract conception of theories and that one should give more attention to the particular formats in which models are expressed and grasped. By taking the example of Classical Mechanics, I show that a model, as an abstract entity, doesn't represen…Read more
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7In this paper, I construe scientific understanding not only as understanding the phenomena by means of some theoretical material (theory, law or model), but more fundamentally as understanding the theoretical material itself that is supposed to explain the phenomena. De Regt and Dieks (2005) emphasise the contextual aspects of the intelligibility of theories, showing that it depends on their "virtues", on the historical standards of intelligibility, and on the particular "skills" of their users.…Read more
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23Bayes et les biais. Le « biais de confirmation » en questionRevue de Métaphysique et de Morale 112 (4): 567-590. 2021.On appelle « biais de confirmation » la tendance supposée des humains à sélectionner les informations qui vont dans le sens de ce qu’ils croient (ou veulent croire) et à interpréter celles dont ils disposent en faveur de leurs hypothèses favorites. Cet article vise à porter un regard critique sur certains usages de cette notion, et plus généralement sur le recours aux « biais cognitifs » pour expliquer tout un ensemble de phénomènes sociaux interprétés comme les marques d’une forme d’irrationali…Read more
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35Plausibility matters: A challenge to Gilbert's “Spinozan” account of belief formationCognition 220 (C): 104990. 2022.
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52In the Space of Reasonable DoubtSynthese 198 (Suppl 15): 3609-3633. 2019.This paper explores ‘reasonable doubt’ as an enlightening notion to think of reasoning and decision-making generally, beyond the judicial domain. The paper starts from a decision-theoretic understanding of the notion, whereby it can be defined in terms of degrees of belief and a probabilistic confirmation threshold for action. It then highlights some of the limits of this notion, and proposes a richer analysis of epistemic states and reasoning through the lens of ‘reasonable doubt’, which in tur…Read more
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8La valeur probante du témoignage : perspectives épistémologique et juridiqueCahiers Philosophiques 142 (3): 21-52. 2015.La notion de témoignage est au cœur d’une branche de la théorie de la connaissance, appelée « épistémologie du témoignage », qui s’interroge sur le bien-fondé des croyances acquises par le biais d’autrui – par opposition aux seules capacités sensorielles et intellectuelles de l’individu. Le témoignage est aussi un des modes de preuve les plus importants dans le cadre judiciaire, aussi bien au cours de l’enquête et de l’instruction que du procès, et a fait l’objet de nombreuses réflexions de la p…Read more
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7In this paper, I analyze the significance of Ernest Nagel's introduction of the notion of model in his reconstruction of scientific theories. Nagel's account is generally considered as a version of the "received view" of theories, whose main advocate is Carnap. However, I will show that Nagel's considerations on models imply a renunciation to the logical empiricists' project of the formalization of scientific theories. I will argue that Nagel implicitly acknowledges that, in order to study the c…Read more
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16Models are generally used by scientists to obtain predictions and to provide explanations about phenomena. Their predictive and explanatory power is generally thought of as depending on their representative power. It is still not clear, though, in virtue of which features models allow scientists to draw inferences about the system they stand for. In this paper, I focus on a special kind of models, namely imaginary models (I-models) such as the simple pendulum. The main question I address is: how…Read more
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15A-not-B Errors: Testing the Limits of Natural Pedagogy TheoryReview of Philosophy and Psychology 3 (4): 525-545. 2012.Gergely and Csibra's theory, known as "natural pedagogy theory", is meant to explain how infants fast-learn generic knowledge from adults. In this paper, my goal is to assess the explanatory import of this theory in a particular case, namely the phenomena known as "A-not-B errors". I first propose a clarification of natural pedagogy theory's fundamental hypotheses. Then, I describe Topál et al.'s (Science, 321, 1831-1834, 2008) experiments, which consist in applying natural pedagogy theory's fra…Read more
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2The theoretician's gambits: scientific representations, their formats and contentIn Lorenzo Magnani, Walter Carnielli & Claudio Pizzi (eds.), MODEL-BASED REASONING IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Springer. pp. 533--558. 2010.It is quite widely acknowledged, in the field of cognitive science, that the format in which a set of data is displayed (lists, graphs, arrays, etc.) matters to the agents' performances in achieving various cognitive tasks, such as problem-solving or decision-making. This paper intends to show that formats also matter in the case of theoretical representations, namely general representations expressing hypotheses, and not only in the case of data displays. Indeed, scientists have limited cogniti…Read more
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9Formats of representation in scientific theorizingIn Paul Humphreys & Cyrille Imbert (eds.), Models, Simulations, and Representations, Routledge. pp. 250-273. 2009.This paper is intended to sketch the definition of a methodological tool -- the notion of a format of representation -- for the study of scientific theorising. One of its main assumption is that a philosophical study of theorising needs to pay attention to other types of units of analysis than the traditional ones, namely, theories and models approached in a logical and structural way, since scientific reasoning is always led on concrete representational devices and depends upon their specific p…Read more
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18Theorizing and Representational Practices in Classical GeneticsBiological Theory 7 (4): 311-324. 2011.In this paper, I wish to challenge theory-biased approaches to scientific knowledge, by arguing for a study of theorizing, as a cognitive activity, rather than of theories, as abstract structures independent from the agents’ understanding of them. Such a study implies taking into account scientists’ reasoning processes, and their representational practices. Here, I analyze the representational practices of geneticists in the 1910s, as a means of shedding light on the content of classical genetic…Read more
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33The book edited by Roman Frigg and Matthew C. Hunter is a great example of interdisciplinary collaborative work, bringing together contributions by scholars of science and of art, around the topic of representation. The collection consists of eleven essays, seven of which were presented in early form at a conference organized by the two editors at the London School of Economics and the Courtauld Institute of Art in June 2006; the other four have been added subsequently. The result is a high-stan…Read more
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6R. Frigg & M.C. Hunter, eds. 2010. Beyond Mimesis and Convention (Marion Vorms) (review)Theoria: Revista de Teoría, Historia y Fundamentos de la Ciencia 27 (3): 391-394. 2012.
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5In this paper, I propose a study of the invention and development of the technique of genetic mapping in the 1920's. I show that what is usually taken as one and the same theory (Classical Genetics) is in fact the result of the articulation of various levels of explanations corresponding to two different disciplines, with different methods and representational practices -- namely Mendelian theory and cytology. The merging of these two disciplinary frameworks is embodied in the very rules underly…Read more
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Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueInstitute for the History and Philosophy of Science and TechnologyRegular Faculty
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University of Paris 1 Panthéon-SorbonneDepartment for Teaching and Research in Philosophy (UFR10)Regular Faculty