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9Aesthetic Virtues and Theory AcceptanceIn Claus Beisbart & Michael Frauchiger (eds.), Scientific Theories and Philosophical Stances: Themes from van Fraassen, De Gruyter. pp. 147-164. 2024.
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7Beauty in experiment: A qualitative analysis of aesthetic experiences in scientific practiceStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 104 (C): 3-11. 2024.
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122The aesthetic value of scientific experimentsIn Milena Ivanova & Alice Murphy (eds.), The Aesthetics of Scientific Experiments, Routledge. 2023.
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IntroductionIn Milena Ivanova & Alice Murphy (eds.), The Aesthetics of Scientific Experiments, Routledge. 2023.
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16The Aesthetics of Scientific Experiments (edited book)Routledge. 2023.The collection provides an analysis of the concept of beauty in the evaluation of experiments. What properties do practicing experimenters value? How have the aesthetic properties of scientific experiments changed over the years? Secondly, the volume looks at the role that aesthetic factors, including negative values such as ugliness, as well as experiences of the sublime and the profound, play in the construction of an experiment and its reception. Thirdly, the chapters provide in-depth histori…Read more
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Beauty, truth and understandingIn Milena Ivanova & Steven French (eds.), The Aesthetics of Science: Beauty, Imagination and Understanding, Routledge. 2020.
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Scientific progress and aesthetic valuesIn Yafeng Shan (ed.), New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress, Routledge. 2022.
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534What is a Beautiful Experiment?Erkenntnis 88 (8): 3419-3437. 2022.This article starts an engagement on the aesthetics of experiments and offers an account for analysing how aesthetics features in the design, evaluation and reception of experiments. I identify two dimensions of aesthetic evaluation of experiments: design and significance. When it comes to design, a number of qualities, such as simplicity, economy and aptness, are analysed and illustrated with the famous Meselson-Stahl experiment. Beautiful experiments are also regarded to make significant disco…Read more
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27Duhem and HolismCambridge University Press. 2021.The holistic thesis developed by Pierre Duhem challenges the idea that our evidence can conclusively falsify a theory. Given that no scientific theory is tested in isolation, a negative experiment can always be attributed to components other than the theory we test – to the auxiliary hypotheses and background assumptions. How do scientists decide whether the experimental result undermines the theory or points at an error in the underlying assumptions? Duhem argues that we cannot offer a rule tha…Read more
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34The aesthetics of scientific experimentsPhilosophy Compass 16 (3). 2021.This article explores the aesthetic dimensions of scientific experimentation, addressing specifically how aesthetic features enter the construction, evaluation and reception of an experiment. I highlight the relationship between experiments and artistic acts in the early years of the Royal Society where experiments do not serve only epistemic aims but also aim to generate feelings of awe and pleasure. I turn to analysing which aspects of experiments are appreciated aesthetically, identifying sev…Read more
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42The Aesthetics of Science: Beauty, Imagination and Understanding (edited book)Routledge. 2020.This volume builds on two recent developments in philosophy on the relationship between art and science: the notion of representation and the role of values in theory choice and the development of scientific theories. Its aim is to address questions regarding scientific creativity and imagination, the status of scientific performances--such as thought experiments and visual aids--and the role of aesthetic considerations in the context of discovery and justification of scientific theories. Severa…Read more
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40Introduction: first principles in science—their status and justificationSynthese 198 (Suppl 14): 3297-3308. 2020.
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43Reflections on the Reception of Jean Perrin’s Experiments by His ContemporariesHopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 10 (1): 219-224. 2020.
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44Is There a Place for Epistemic Virtues in Theory Choice?In Abrol Fairweather (ed.), Virtue Epistemology Naturalized: Bridges Between Virtue Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, Synthese Library. 2014.This paper challenges the appeal to theory virtues in theory choice as well as the appeal to the intellectual and moral virtues of an agent as determining unique choices between empirically equivalent theories. After arguing that theoretical virtues do not determine the choice of one theory at the expense of another theory, I argue that nor does the appeal to intellectual and moral virtues single out one agent, who defends a particular theory, and exclude another agent defending an alternative t…Read more
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151Methods in Science and MetaphysicsIn Ricki Bliss & James Miller (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Metametaphysics, Routledge. 2020.While science is taken to differ from non-scientific activities in virtue of its methodology, metaphysics is usually defined in terms of its subject matter. However, many traditional questions of metaphysics are addressed in a variety of ways by science, making it difficult to demarcate metaphysics from science solely in terms of their subject matter. Are the methodologies of science and metaphysics sufficiently distinct to act as criteria of demarcation between the two? In this chapter we focus…Read more
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242Virtues and vices in scientific practiceSynthese 194 (5). 2017.The role intellectual virtues play in scientific inquiry has raised significant discussions in the recent literature. A number of authors have recently explored the link between virtue epistemology and philosophy of science with the aim to show whether epistemic virtues can contribute to the resolution of the problem of theory choice. This paper analyses how intellectual virtues can be beneficial for successful resolution of theory choice. We explore the role of virtues as well as vices in scien…Read more
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214Theory Choice, Good Sense and Social ConsensusErkenntnis 78 (5): 1109-1132. 2013.There has been a significant interest in the recent literature in developing a solution to the problem of theory choice which is both normative and descriptive, but agent-based rather than rule-based, originating from Pierre Duhem’s notion of ‘good sense’. In this paper we present the properties Duhem attributes to good sense in different contexts, before examining its current reconstructions advanced in the literature and their limitations. We propose an alternative account of good sense, seen …Read more
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60David Stump. Conceptual Change and the Philosophy of Science: Alternative Interpretations of the A Priori. New York: Routledge, 2015. Pp. 176. $116.00 (review)Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 7 (1): 151-153. 2017.
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64Teaching and learning guide for aesthetics of sciencePhilosophy Compass 12 (10). 2017.Scientists often use aesthetic values in the evaluation and choice of theories. Aesthetic values are not only regarded as leading to practically more useful theories but are often taken to stand in a special epistemic relation to the truth of a theory such that the aesthetic merit of a theory is evidence of its truth. This paper explores what aesthetic considerations influence scientists' reasoning, how such aesthetic values relate to the utility of a scientific theory, and how one can justify t…Read more
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1483Aesthetic values in sciencePhilosophy Compass 12 (10). 2017.Scientists often use aesthetic values in the evaluation and choice of theories. Aesthetic values are not only regarded as leading to practically more useful theories but are often taken to stand in a special epistemic relation to the truth of a theory such that the aesthetic merit of a theory is evidence of its truth. This paper explores what aesthetic considerations influence scientists' reasoning, how such aesthetic values relate to the utility of a scientific theory, and how one can justify t…Read more
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196Friedman’s Relativised A Priori and Structural Realism: In Search of CompatibilityInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 25 (1): 23-37. 2011.In this article I discuss a recent argument due to Dan McArthur, who suggests that the charge that Michael Friedman’s relativised a priori leads to irrationality in theory change can be avoided by adopting structural realism. I provide several arguments to show that the conjunction of Friedman’s relativised a priori with structural realism cannot make the former avoid the charge of irrationality. I also explore the extent to which Friedman’s view and structural realism are compatible, a presuppo…Read more
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130Conventional Principles in Science: On the Foundations and Development of the Relativized A PrioriStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 52 (Part B): 111-113. 2015.
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125‘Good Sense’ in context: A response to KiddStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 42 (4): 610-612. 2011.In his response to my, Ian Kidd claims that my argument against Stump’s interpretation of Duhem’s concept of ‘good sense’ is unsound because it ignores an important distinction within virtue epistemology. In light of the distinction between reliabilist and responsibilist virtue epistemology, Kidd argues that Duhem can be seen as supporting the latter, which he further illustrates with a discussion of Duhem’s argument against ‘perfect theory’. I argue that no substantive argument is offered to sh…Read more
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213Conventionalism about what? Where Duhem and Poincaré part waysStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 54 80-89. 2015.This paper examines whether, and in what contexts, Duhem’s and Poincaré’s views can be regarded as conventionalist or structural realist. After analysing the three different contexts in which conventionalism is attributed to them – in the context of the aim of science, the underdetermination problem and the epistemological status of certain principles – I show that neither Duhem’s nor Poincaré’s arguments can be regarded as conventionalist. I argue that Duhem and Poincaré offer different solutio…Read more
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200Conventionalism, structuralism and neo-Kantianism in Poincaré’s philosophy of scienceStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 52 (Part B): 114-122. 2015.Poincaré is well known for his conventionalism and structuralism. However, the relationship between these two theses and their place in Poincaré׳s epistemology of science remain puzzling. In this paper I show the scope of Poincaré׳s conventionalism and its position in Poincaré׳s hierarchical approach to scientific theories. I argue that for Poincaré scientific knowledge is relational and made possible by synthetic a priori, empirical and conventional elements, which, however, are not chosen arbi…Read more
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187Poincaré’s aesthetics of scienceSynthese 194 (7): 2581-2594. 2017.This paper offers a systematic analysis of Poincaré’s understanding of beauty in science. In particular, the paper examines the epistemic significance Poincaré attributes to aesthetic judgement by reconstructing and analysing his arguments on simplicity and unity in science. I offer a consistent reconstruction of Poincaré’s account and show that for Poincaré simplicity and unity are regulative principles, linked to the aim of science—that of achieving understanding of how phenomena relate. I sho…Read more
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194Did Perrin’s Experiments Convert Poincaré to Scientific Realism?Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 3 (1): 1-19. 2013.In this paper I argue that Poincaré’s acceptance of the atom does not indicate a shift from instrumentalism to scientific realism. I examine the implications of Poincaré’s acceptance of the existence of the atom for our current understanding of his philosophy of science. Specifically, how can we understand Poincaré’s acceptance of the atom in structural realist terms? I examine his 1912 paper carefully and suggest that it does not entail scientific realism in the sense of acceptance of the funda…Read more
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66Explaining Science's Success: Understanding How Scientific Knowledge WorksInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 28 (1): 105-108. 2014.No abstract
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303Pierre Duhem’s Good Sense as a guide to Theory ChoiceStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 41 (1): 58-64. 2010.This paper examines Duhem’s concept of good sense as an attempt to support a non rule-governed account of rationality in theory choice. Faced with the underdetermination of theory by evidence thesis and the continuity thesis, Duhem tried to account for the ability of scientists to choose theories that continuously grow to a natural classification. I will examine the concept of good sense and the problems that stem from it. I will also present a recent attempt by David Stump to link good sense to…Read more
Areas of Specialization
20th Century Philosophy |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Philosophy of Physical Science |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Physical Science |
General Philosophy of Science |