•  36
    Are Causal Connections Relations Between Events?
    In Th.D.: Philosophical Essays Dedicated to Thorild Dahlquist, . pp. 94-107. 1980.
    Davidson’s account of singular causal statements as expressing relations between events together with his views on event identity lead to inferences involving causal statements which many of his critics find counterintuitive. These are sometimes said to be avoided on Kim’s view of events, in terms of which this line of criticism is often formulated. It is argued that neither Davidson nor Kim offer a satisfactory account of events - an essential prerequisit for the relational theory - and an acco…Read more
  • Generation and Destruction of Chemical Substances: An Exposition of the Aristotelian Conception
    In Danuta Sobczynska, Pawel Zeidler & Ewa Zielonacka-Lis (eds.), Chemistry in the Philosophical Melting Pot, Peter Lang Europäischer Verlag Der Wissenschaften. pp. 357-393. 2004.
    The Aristotelian notion of a proper mixture is that of a homogeneous body potentially separable into a definite proportion of elements. Its relation to more modern chemical ideas is not without interest despite the success of modern atomic theory. But there is a fundamental conflict entailed by Aristotle’s two approaches to the characterisation of elements, one in terms of the properties they exhibit in isolation and another in terms of their role as constituents of compounds. Although one sourc…Read more
  • Chemical Substances and Intensive Properties
    Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 988 99-113. 2003.
    Despite the importance molecular structure has acquired in 20th century chemistry, more traditional macroscopic notions in terms of a continuous concept of matter continue to play a role in chemical theorising. In the light of the extensive and determined criticism of reductionism in recent philosophy of chemistry, it is of interest to see macroscopic ontology treated autonomously. One aspect of this is developed here, namely the concept of chemical substance. This is characterised by contrast w…Read more
  •  209
    Thermodynamics of an Empty Box
    with G. J. Schmitz, M. te Vrugt, T. Haug-Warberg, and L. Ellingsen
    Entropy 25 (315): 1-30. 2023.
    A gas in a box is perhaps the most important model system studied in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Usually, studies focus on the gas, whereas the box merely serves as an idealized confinement. The present article focuses on the box as the central object and develops a thermodynamic theory by treating the geometric degrees of freedom of the box as the degrees of freedom of a thermodynamic system. Applying standard mathematical methods to the thermody- namics of an empty box allows equ…Read more
  • The accumulation of knowledge concerning the character and transformations of substances from ancient times constitutes progress in chemistry, which has accelerated enormously since the end of the 17th century. The present short article focuses on some themes in the development of theorising and conceptual clarification at the macroscopic and microscopic levels during the 19th and 20th centuries. This covers the general understanding of substances in relation to phase and the general notion of a…Read more
  • Reconciling Micro- and Macro-Perspectives
    In Peter Janich and Nikos Psarros (ed.), Die Sprache der Chemie. pp. 25-31. 1996.
  • Fleeting Things and Permanent Stuff: A Priorean Project in Real Time
    In Uwe Scheffler and Max Urchs Jan Faye (ed.), Perspectives on Time. pp. 119-141. 1997.
    Prior left us with a problem which he stated in the following way: ‘Very roughly, it would seem that countable “things” are made or grow from bits of stuff, or from other countable “things”, that are already there. The precise logic of this process hasn’t been worked out yet, and until it has been, it seems likely that any tensed predicate logic can only be provisional in character.’ Although I disagree with much of the philosophy of time underlying Priorean tense logic, the problem of presentin…Read more
  •  45
    This undergraduate textbook introduces some fundamental issues in philosophy of science for students of philosophy and science students. The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 deals with knowledge and values. Chap. 1 presents the classical conception of knowledge as initiated by the ancient Greeks and elaborated during the development of science, introducing the central concepts of truth, belief and justification. Aspects of the quest for objectivity are taken up in the following two chapte…Read more
  • Classical atoms—“part-less, ontologically irreducible simples” as the conference flyer puts it—are not the atoms of modern chemistry and analogies with the latter can be construed in various ways. They have figured in the historical development of concepts of chemical affinity but without, as Alan Chalmers and I have independently argued, making any significant contribution to empirically justified theories. A purely combinatorial conception of the formation of compounds by juxtaposing atoms is …Read more
  •  20
    An Aristotelian Theory of Chemical Substance
    History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 12 (1): 149-164. 2009.
    In the course of developing his theory of what would now be called chemical substance, Aristotle introduces what appear to be two distinct definitions of element alongside his notion of mixt (homogeneous mixture). The present paper is concerned with the integration of these ideas in a uniform theory, which calls for some speculation about the import of elemental proportions in compounds.
  • This is a translation of Duhem's Le mixte et la combination chimique (1902) together with eight related essays including Les theories de la chaleur (1895), Thermochimie (1897), L'oeuvre de M. J. H. van 't Hoff (1900) and a short extract from Traité d'énergétique (1911) dealing with the nature of mixtures.
  •  9
    This is a translation of some of Duhem's earlier papers on thermodynamics: Study of the thermodynamic works of J. Willard Gibbs (1887) Commentary on the Principles of thermodynamics, I (1892), II (1893) and iii (1894).
  •  34
    True Science: Apropos a Recent Collection of Duhem's Essays (review)
    Theoria 66 (1): 86-96. 2000.
    Duhem is perhaps the last active scientist to have produced a philosophi- cal text, and TheAim and Structure of Physical Theory retains its status as one that every textbook writer in the philosophy of science has to take into consideration. Several of Duhem’s other books have since appeared in English translation, but the Essays in the History and Philosophy of Science is the first collection of Duhem’s papers to appear in English. Commentators have oRen pointed out that the roots of Duhem’s ma…Read more
  •  228
    Temporal intervals and temporal order
    Logique Et Analyse 24 (93): 51. 1981.
    A logic of intervals is proposed akin to the one published by Hamblin (Hamblin (1969) and (1971)). Like Hamblin's, the present system is also based on a single primitive. However, the work presented here differs from Hamblin's in a number of respects. Most importantly, the present system is explicitly based on mereological ideas in such a way that not only are the two notions of abutment and temporal order involved in Hamblin's primitive two-place relation "abuts at the earlier end" distinguishe…Read more
  •  48
    The speaker's point of view
    Synthese 32 (3-4). 1976.
    The various conclusions reached in this paper can be drawn together and briefly summarised in the following thesis: It is necessary to use variables ranging over times explicitly in the object language in the logical analysis of temporal reference in English. A discussion of Arthur Prior ideas, which are in direct opposition to those encompassed here, focuses on the principle that the point of view of the speaker dominates all subordinate clauses, which I maintain and Prior rejects. This leads m…Read more
  • Changing Positions: Essays Dedicated to Lars Lindahl (edited book)
    with Jan Odelstad
    Department of Philosophy, Uppsala University. 1986.
  •  59
    Macroscopic objects: An exercise in Duhemian ontology
    Philosophy of Science 63 (2): 205-224. 1996.
    Aristotelian ideas are presented in a favorable light in Duhem's historical works surveying the history of the notion of chemical combination (1902) and the development of mechanics (1903). The importance Duhem was later to ascribe to Aristotelian ideas as reflected in the weight he attached to medieval science is well known. But the Aristotelian influence on his own mature philosophical perspective, and more particularly on his concern for logical coherence and the development of his ontologica…Read more
  •  216
    Nancy Cartwright has drawn attention to how explanations are actually given in mathematical sciences. She argues that these procedures support an antirealist thesis that fundamental explanatory laws are not true. Moreover, she claims to be be essentially following Duhem's line of thought in developing this thesis. Without wishing to detract from the importance of her observations, it is suggested that they do not necessarily require the antirealist thesis. The antirealist interpretation of Duhem…Read more
  •  112
    An assessment of the similarities and differences between space and time has played an important part in the development of the views of a number of philosophers about time. Examples of statements about time are compared with allegedly corresponding statements about space to give us analogies and disanalogies according to whether the statements have the same or different truth values. But what are the general principles on which such comparisons are based? In particular, according to what criter…Read more
  • Would Cause
    Acta Philosophica Fennica 38 156-182. 1985.
  •  2
    Gregg’s Paradox and Cladistic Taxonomy
    In Paul Needham & Jan Odelstad (eds.), Changing Positions: Essays Dedicated to Lars Lindahl, . pp. 151-166. 1986.
    A solution to Gregg’s paradox is suggested in the spirit of cladistic taxonomy by inverting the usual order in which rank is assigned and working from the apex of the tree.
  • Compounds and Mixtures
    In Robin Findlay Hendry, Paul Needham & Andrea Woody (eds.), Handbook of the Philosophy of Science, Vol 6: Philosophy of Chemistry, . pp. 271-290. 2012.
    From a modern point of view, compounds are contrasted with elements of which they are composed, and the two categories combine to give the category of substances. Mixtures, on the other hand, might be understood to contrast with pure substances (substances in isolation), so that mixtures are quantities of matter containing several substances (be they compounds or uncombined elements) whereas pure substances are understood to be quantities of matter exhausting the material contents of a region of…Read more
  • Modality, Mereology and Substance
    In Robin Hendry, Paul Needham & Andrea Woody (eds.), Handbook of the Philosophy of Science, Vol 6: Philosophy of Chemistry, . pp. 232-254. 2012.
    This article surveys the theory of the part relation (mereology), quantified modal logic, and Kripke and Putnam’s notion of natural kinds. It shows how the former two bear on the macroscopic understanding of the notions of substance and phase, which stands in contrast to the microphysical essentialism of Kripke and Putnam, and can be used to explicate Aristotle’s and the Stoic conceptions of mixture. The article concludes with some comments about the relevance of the issues raised by these ancie…Read more
  • Pierre Duhem (1861–1916)
    In Robin Hendry, Paul Needham & Andrea Woody (eds.), Handbook of the Philosophy of Science, Vol 6: Philosophy of Chemistry, . pp. 113-124. 2012.