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589Einstein, Kant, and the A PrioriIn Mauricio Suárez, Mauro Dorato & Miklós Rédei (eds.), EPSA Philosophical Issues in the Sciences · Launch of the European Philosophy of Science Association, Springer. pp. 65--73. 2009.Kant's original version of transcendental philosophy took both Euclidean geometry and the Newtonian laws of motion to be synthetic a priori constitutive principles—which, from Kant's point of view, function as necessary presuppositions for applying our fundamental concepts of space, time, matter, and motion to our sensible experience of the natural world. Although Kant had very good reasons to view the principles in question as having such a constitutively a priori role, we now know, in the wake…Read more
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516Carnap on theoretical terms: structuralism without metaphysicsSynthese 180 (2). 2011.Both realists and instrumentalists have found it difficult to understand (much less accept) Carnap's developed view on theoretical terms, which attempts to stake out a neutral position between realism and instrumentalism. I argue that Carnap's mature conception of a scientific theory as the conjunction of its Ramsey sentence and Carnap sentence can indeed achieve this neutral position. To see this, however, we need to see why the Newman problem raised in the context of recent work on structural …Read more
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491Kant on geometry and spatial intuitionSynthese 186 (1): 231-255. 2012.I use recent work on Kant and diagrammatic reasoning to develop a reconsideration of central aspects of Kant’s philosophy of geometry and its relation to spatial intuition. In particular, I reconsider in this light the relations between geometrical concepts and their schemata, and the relationship between pure and empirical intuition. I argue that diagrammatic interpretations of Kant’s theory of geometrical intuition can, at best, capture only part of what Kant’s conception involves and that, fo…Read more
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420Kant, Kuhn, and the rationality of sciencePhilosophy of Science 69 (2): 171-90. 2002.This paper considers the evolution of the problem of scientific rationality from Kant through Carnap to Kuhn. I argue for a relativized and historicized version of the original Kantian conception of scientific a priori principles and examine the way in which these principles change and develop across revolutionary paradigm shifts. The distinctively philosophical enterprise of reflecting upon and contextualizing such principles is then seen to play a key role in making possible rational intersubj…Read more
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351Ernst Cassirer and Thomas Kuhn: The neo-Kantian tradition in history and philosophy of sciencePhilosophical Forum 39 (2): 239-252. 2008.No Abstract
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325Poincaré's conventionalism and the logical positivistsFoundations of Science 1 (2): 299-314. 1995.The logical positivists adopted Poincare's doctrine of the conventionality of geometry and made it a key part of their philosophical interpretation of relativity theory. I argue, however, that the positivists deeply misunderstood Poincare's doctrine. For Poincare's own conception was based on the group-theoretical picture of geometry expressed in the Helmholtz-Lie solution of the space problem, and also on a hierarchical picture of the sciences according to which geometry must be presupposed be …Read more
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302Carnap, Cassirer, and Heidegger: The davos disputation and twentieth century philosophyEuropean Journal of Philosophy 10 (3). 2002.
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301Bertrand Russell's the analysis of matter: Its historical context and contemporary interestPhilosophy of Science 52 (4): 621-639. 1985.The Analysis of Matter is perhaps best known for marking Russell's rejection of phenomenalism and his development of a variety of Lockean representationalism–-Russell's causal theory of perception. This occupies Part 2 of the work. Part 1, which is certainly less well known, contains many observations on twentieth-century physics. Unfortunately, Russell's discussion of relativity and the foundations of physical geometry is carried out in apparent ignorance of Reichenbach's and Carnap's investiga…Read more
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266Logical form and the order of nature: Comments on Beátrice Longuenesse's Kant and the capacity to judgeArchiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 82 (2): 202-215. 2000.
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265Reconsidering Logical PositivismCambridge University Press. 1999.In this collection of essays one of the preeminent philosophers of science writing offers a reinterpretation of the enduring significance of logical positivism, the revolutionary philosophical movement centered around the Vienna Circle in the 1920s and 30s. Michael Friedman argues that the logical positivists were radicals not by presenting a new version of empiricism but rather by offering a new conception of a priori knowledge and its role in empirical knowledge. This collection will be mandat…Read more
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233Kant and the exact sciencesHarvard University Press. 1992.In this new book, Michael Friedman argues that Kant's continuing efforts to find a metaphysics that could provide a foundation for the sciences is of the utmost ...
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230Wissenschaftslogik: The role of logic in the philosophy of scienceSynthese 164 (3): 385-400. 2008.Carl Hempel introduced what he called "Craig's theorem" into the philosophy of science in a famous discussion of the "problem of theoretical terms." Beginning with Hempel's use of 'Craig's theorem," I shall bring out some of the key differences between Hempel's treatment of the "problem of theoretical terms" and Carnap's in order to illuminate the peculiar function of Wissenschaftslogik in Carnap's mature philosophy. Carnap's treatment, in particular, is fundamentally antimetaphysical—he aims to…Read more
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224Extending the Dynamics of ReasonErkenntnis 75 (3): 431-444. 2011.What I call the dynamics of reason is a post-Kuhnian approach to the history and philosophy of science articulating a relativized and historicized version of the Kantian conception of the rationality and objectivity of the modern physical sciences. I here discuss two extensions of this approach. I argue that, although the relativized standards of rationality in question change over time, the particular way in which they do this still preserves the trans-historical rationality of the entire proce…Read more
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215Kant, skepticism, and idealismInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 49 (1). 2006.Skeptical problems arising for Kant's version of transcendental idealism have been raised from Kant's own time to the present day. By focussing on how such problems originally arose in the wake of Kant's work, and on the first formulations of absolute idealism by Schelling, I argue that the skeptical problems in question ultimately depend on fundamental features of Kant's philosophy of natural science. As a result, Naturphilosophie and the organic conception of nature cannot easily be separated …Read more
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194Kantian Themes in Contemporary PhilosophyAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 72 (1): 111-129. 1998.[Michael Friedman] This paper considers the extent to which Kant's vision of a distinctively 'transcendental' task for philosophy is essentially tied to his views on the foundations of the mathematical and physical sciences. Contemporary philosophers with broadly Kantian sympathies have attempted to reinterpret his project so as to isolate a more general philosophical core not so closely tied to the details of now outmoded mathematical-physical theories (Euclidean geometry and Newtonian physics)…Read more
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193Laws of Nature and Causal NecessityKant Studien 105 (4): 531-553. 2014.Name der Zeitschrift: Kant-Studien Jahrgang: 105 Heft: 4 Seiten: 531-553.
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165Newton and Kant: Quantity of matter in the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural ScienceSouthern Journal of Philosophy 50 (3): 482-503. 2012.Immanuel Kant's Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786) provides metaphysical foundations for the application of mathematics to empirically given nature. The application that Kant primarily has in mind is that achieved in Isaac Newton's Principia (1687). Thus, Kant's first chapter, the Phoronomy, concerns the mathematization of speed or velocity, and his fourth chapter, the Phenomenology, concerns the empirical application of the Newtonian notions of true or absolute space, time, and …Read more
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157Ernst Cassirer and contemporary philosophy of scienceAngelaki 10 (1). 2005.(2005). Ernst Cassirer and Contemporary Philosophy of Science. Angelaki: Vol. 10, continental philosophy and the sciences the german traditionissue editor: damian veal, pp. 119-128
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157Understanding space-timeStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 38 (1): 216-225. 2007.
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146Reconsidering the dynamics of reason: Response to Ferrari, Mormann, Nordmann, and UebelStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 43 (1): 47-53. 2012.
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144Causal laws and the foundations of natural scienceIn Paul Guyer (ed.), The Cambridge companion to Kant, Cambridge University Press. pp. 3--161. 1992.
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135The Scientific Image by Bas C. van Fraassen (review)Journal of Philosophy 79 (5): 274-283. 1982.
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134Discourse on a New Method: Reinvigorating the Marriage of History and Philosophy of Science (edited book)Open Court. 2010.Addressing a wide range of topics, from Newton to Post-Kuhnian philosophy of science, these essays critically examine themes that have been central to the influential work of philosopher Michael Friedman.
Stanford, California, United States of America