•  4
    Computer Simulations
    PSA Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1990 (2): 496-506. 1990.
    A great deal of attention has been paid by philosophers to the use of computers in the modelling of human cognitive capacities and in the construction of intelligent artifacts. This emphasis has tended to obscure the fact that most of the high-level computing power in science is deployed in what appears to be a much less exciting activity: solving equations. This apparently mundane set of applications reflects the historical origins of modem computing, in the sense that most of the early compute…Read more
  •  24
    Editorial preface
    with James H. Fetzer
    Synthese 104 (2): 177-177. 1995.
  •  431
    Emergence, not supervenience
    Philosophy of Science Supplement 64 (4): 337-45. 1997.
    I argue that supervenience is an inadequate device for representing relations between different levels of phenomena. I then provide six criteria that emergent phenomena seem to satisfy. Using examples drawn from macroscopic physics, I suggest that such emergent features may well be quite common in the physical realm
  •  72
    Aspects of emergence
    Philosophical Topics 24 (1): 53-71. 1996.
  •  1
    Hans Reichenbach: Logical Empiricist
    Philosophy of Science 49 (1): 140-142. 1982.
  •  2
    Is “Physical Randomness” Just Indeterminism in Disguise?
    PSA Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1978 (2): 98-113. 1978.
    The topic of this session is “physical randomness”. It might be doubted whether such a subject exists, for definitions of randomness have hitherto almost all been mathematical in nature. The only exceptions of which I am aware are the preceding paper by Benioff and a paper by Wesley Salmon. These attempts to inject some empirical content into randomness are highly desirable. But anyone attempting to formulate a physically based definition of randomness should at some point make clear what the co…Read more
  • An Occasion for Celebration
    Logos and Episteme 1 (1): 7-7. 2010.
  •  28
    Emergence develops a novel account of diachronic ontological emergence called transformational emergence and locates it in an established historical framework. The author shows how many problems affecting ontological emergence result from a dominant but inappropriate metaphysical tradition and provides a comprehensive assessment of current theories of emergence.
  •  44
    The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Science (edited book)
    Oxford University Press. 2014.
    This handbook provides both an overview of state-of-the-art scholarship in philosophy of science, as well as a guide to new directions in the discipline. Section I contains broad overviews of the main lines of research and the state of established knowledge in six principal areas of the discipline, including computational, physical, biological, psychological and social sciences, as well as general philosophy of science. Section II covers what are considered to be the traditional topics in the ph…Read more
  •  14
    Philosophical Papers
    Oup Usa. 2018.
    This volume contains fifteen papers by Paul Humphreys, who has made important contributions to the philosophy of computer simulations, emergence, the philosophy of probability, probabilistic causality, and scientific explanation. It includes detailed postscripts to each section and a philosophical introduction. One of the papers is previously unpublished.
  •  7
    https://revistes.uab.cat/enrahonar/article/view/v37-humphreys.
  •  24
    This book provides a post-positivist theory of deterministic and probabilistic causality that supports both quantitative and qualitative explanations. Features of particular interest include the ability to provide true explanations in contexts where our knowledge is incomplete, a systematic interpretation of causal modeling techniques in the social sciences, and a direct realist view of causal relations that is compatible with a liberal empiricism. The book should be of wide interest to both phi…Read more
  •  12
  •  20
    The New Theory of Reference: Kripke, Marcus, and its origins (edited book)
    with J. H. Fetzer
    Kluwer Academic Publishers. 1998.
    This collection of essays is the definitive version of a widely discussed debate over the origins of the New Theory of Reference. In new articles, written especially for this volume, Quentin Smith and Scott Soames, the original participants in the debate, elaborate their positions on who was responsible for the ideas that Saul Kripke presented in his Naming and Necessity. They are joined by John Burgess, who weighs in on the side of Soames, while Smith adds a further dimension in discussing the …Read more
  •  180
    Why propensities cannot be probabilities
    Philosophical Review 94 (4): 557-570. 1985.
  •  491
    Probabilistic Causality and Multiple Causation
    PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1980. 1980.
    It is argued in this paper that although much attention has been paid to causal chains and common causes within the literature on probabilistic causality, a primary virtue of that approach is its ability to deal with cases of multiple causation. In doing so some ways are indicated in which contemporary sine qua non analyses of causation are too narrow (and ways in which probabilistic causality is not) and an argument by Reichenbach designed to provide a basis for the asymmetry of causation is re…Read more
  •  5
    Reviews (review)
    British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 34 (4): 410-412. 1983.
  •  233
    The Grand Leap (review)
    with David Freedman
    British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 47 (1): 113-123. 1996.
  •  3
    Inference, Method, and Decision (review)
    International Studies in Philosophy 12 (1): 90-91. 1980.
  •  28
    Inference, Method, and Decision (review)
    International Studies in Philosophy 12 (1): 90-91. 1980.
  •  2
    Cutting the Causal Chain
    Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 61 (3): 305-314. 1980.